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THE 



HISTORY OF PERU, 



BY HENRY S. BEEBE. 



'■* '^~*-'^' 



PERIL ILLS. 



'-- 5 



.1. F. Llntox, Pjmntku AXJ^ J^UHLISIIKR. 

185.S. 



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37(^ l^iS- 



KKKATA. 

On page 7, it is ineiitioiKHl. iiicidciUally to the 
Triain fact— that H. F. Woodworth received 528 
votes for tlie l.egislatiire— tliat lie was elected. 
Tlii^isaiierrj>r. . He was defeated, notwithstand- 
ing the large and almost imaninions vote lie re- 
CL'ivcd in Pern. 

On mature reflection the writer concludes that 
lie will mitigate his statement concerning the. 
" breadth " of that cake of ice described on pagt^ 
.'59. For '• length and breadth" the reader will 
})lcase substitute '-extent" — this is positively all 
the abatement tliat can be made. 

On line 5, page 04, the word ''upon" and on 
line IT, page 77, the word ^'but" have intruded 
themselves very mysteriously. Please to consid- 
er them as omitted. 

\\"ith tliese emendations he commits his tirst- 
br)T'n to the waters of public approval or condem- 
nation, begging for it all the indulgence which 
conscious incapacity can justly claim. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



It can hardly be said that a town of a popula- 
tion of three thousand six hundred and fifty-two 
souls, dating back but about twenty years to its 
first rude tenement and solitary family, can have 
any history. The events of any public interest 
are so few, and their importance so small, that no 
reasonable hope can be entertained that their re- 
cital will be any thing but a matter of indiifer- 
ance to others than the present or former resi- 
dents, or those connected with them by ties ol 
consanguinity, or having an interest in its advance- 
ment and prosperity. It is true that at some future 
time, the record may be useful to the historian, 
if it should be so fortunate as to survive. The 
statistics have been collected with care and con- 
siderable labor, and are believed to be correct and 
reliable. Beyond this the writer claims no merit 
for the work. The anecdotes and events i*elated' 



aot strictly statistical, have all transj^red under 
his personal observation and knowledge, during 
a residence dating back to the embryo town. 

Most persons who have had the temerity to un- 
dertake the relation of cotemporary events^ and to 
speak of cotemporary actors, have received more 
kicks than coppers for their pains. How far the 
writer will escape their general fate remains to be 
seen. Knowing the dangerous ground whereon 
he was treading, he has endeavored to confine 
himself to the simple relation of undisputed facts, 
abstaining from all comments and speculation 
thereon. He has not set himself up as a imblic 
censor or a public eulogist. It is not to be sup- 
posed that he has been mthout partisan and pre- 
judiced views of public questions. These he has 
endeavored to suppress and to " render unto Cse- 
sar the things which are Caesars. " 'Nor has he 
undertaken to draw a rose colored picture for the 
benefit af Eastern Capitalists, or those seeking a 
home in the west — to throw bait to Gudgeons. — 
In fact, it, will be admitted, that his picture is of 
the soberest and duUest kind of grey. "Would 
that it could be here and there touched with lio<]it- 
er and more cheerful hues; but truth is iiiex- 



orable, and demands the strictest loyalty from 
those who worship at her shrine. 

The people of Peru may be a little curious to 
know why a person, whose pursuits in life have 
been hitherto very far removed from those of a 
writer for the public eye, should have undertaken 
a task for which pre^dous practice and experience 
have so little qualified him. He begs to assure 
them, that it was entirely an accident — no litera- 
ry ambition prompted him at all. To be sure he 
had heard that 

" 'Tis pleasant sure to see one's name in print, 
And a book's a book although there's nothing 
in't," 
but that was not it. Having a little leisure, he 
had undertaken to gather and condense some sta- 
tistics of the town for the publisher of a Directo- 
ry of La Salle County. Having commenced the 
task he became interested therein, and extended 
his researches and remarks to a length quite too 
formidable for their original purpose. But he re- 
solved not to hide his light under a bushel — hence 
the present infliction which he hopes will be borne 
with commendable fortitude. 



HISTORY OF PERU. 

CHAPTER I. 

Situation of the City — Its early Settlement and 
Settlers — Passage of the Internal Improve- 
ment Act and Commencement of work on 
the Central Rail Road — Election of H. P. Wood- 
Worth to the Legislature — Election for Organi- 
zation under the Borough Act — First Census — 
First Election of Trustees — First Religious 
Meeting. 

The City of Peru is situated in the Westerly 
part of La Salle County, Illinois, on the North- 
ern bank of the Illinois River, at the head of 
Navigation, and at the Junction of the Illinois 
and Michigan Canal. Distance from Chicago 100 
miles, and from Saint Louis 230. The territory 
embraced within the corporated limits, is Sec. 16 
and IT, and all those fractional parts of 20 and 21, 
which lie north of the river, Town 33, Range 1, 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 5 

East of the Tliird Principal Meridian, comprising 
an area of 1462 Acres. 

The settlement of the site occupied by this 
City was commenced in the Spring of 1 836, short- 
ly after the passage of the act incorporating the 
Illinois and Michigan Central, which was to 
terminate at or near the month of the Little Yer- 
million, on land owned by the State. It was 
probably the most eligible site on lands owned 
by individuals. The Southwest quarter of Sec. 
16 was laid out and sold by the School Commis- 
sioners in 1834, and called Peru. Kinaw^a Addi 
tion, located on the South East quarter of Sec. 
17, and the North East fract-ional part of 20, up- 
on which the most business part of Pei-u is at 
present situated, was owned originally by Lyman 
D. Brewster, who died in the fall of 1835. It 
was plated and recorded in 1836, by Theron D. 
Brewster, at present a leading and influential 
citizen. 

In 1835 the only residents of that portion of 
territory now occupied by th^ cities of Peru 
and La Salle were Lyman D. Brewster, his 
nephew T. D. Brewster, John Hays and fami- 
ly, Peltiah and Calvin Brewster, Samuel Lap_ 



6 THE HISTORV OF PERU, 

SLEY and Burton Ayres. In the Spring of 1835, 
the first building — a store — was erected in Peru 
by Ulyses Spauldino and H. L. Kinney, late of 
Central American notoriety. On the 4th July 1836, 
the first shovel full of earth was excavated upon 
the Canal. No considerable population was at- 
tracted to the town until 1837. Among the peo- 
ple who made this place their home in that and 
the following years, were "VVm. Eichardson, J. P. 
JuDSON, S. Lisle Smith and his brother Doctor 
Smith, Fletcher Webster, Daniel Townsend, 
P. Hall, James Mulford, James '^ Myers, Wm. 
and Chas. Dresser, Harvey Wood, N. B. Bul- 
lock, Jesse Puosley, Ezra McKinzie, JSTathan- 
lEL and Isaac Abraham, J. P. Thompson, John 
Hoffman, C. H. Charles, Asa- Mann, Lucius 
RuMRiLL, Cornelius Cahill, Cornelius Cokeley, 
David D^vna, Zimri Lewis, Daniel McGin, |S. 
W. Raymond, Geo. B. Martin, Wm. H. Davis, 
Geo. W. Holley, Geo. Low, M. Mott, F. Le- 
BEAU, A. Hyatt, Ward B. Burnett, O. C. 
Motley, Wm. Pa-ul, H. P. Woodworth, H. S. 
Beebe, Harvey Leonard, &c. 

At the Session of the Legislature of 1836, the 
Internal Improvement act was passed, incorpor- 



THE lllSToiiY OF PERU. « 

atiiig the Central Rail Road, which was subse- 
quently located upon the same general route as 
is followed by the present Illinois Central Rail 
Road, crossing the river at Peru. Operations 
were commenced on both sides of the river in 
1838. During this season very extensive im- 
provements were made, large accessions of pop- 
ulation took place, and the settlement began to 
assume the appearance of a town. In 1839 the 
whole country was on the top wave of prosperity. 
Large forces were employed upon both the Canal 
and Rail Road— numerous other works being con- 
templated, all terminating at Peru, of course— 
^nd the disbursements were large. The town 
shared the general prosperity. In this year H. 
P. WooDWOTH was elected to the Legislature from 
La Salle Coimty, which then embraced the pres- 
ent territory of Kendall and Grundy, receiving 
in Peru 528 votes, being the largest vote ever 
polled in the precinct, before or since. 

On the 6th of December 1838 the inhabitants 
assembled at the tavern of Zimri Lewis, and or- 
ganised a meeting by the appointment of H. S. 
Beebe, Chairman, and J. B. Judson, Secretary, 
and voted to take the preliminary steps for orgai\ 



^ THE HISTORY OF PERL*. 

izing the town as a borough under the general 
Incorporation Act. At a census taken the same 
month there were found to be within the hniits 
proposed to be embraced in the Borough, to-wit : 
The South half of Section 10, the South East 
quarter of Section IT, and all that part of Sec- 
tion 20 lying JS^orth of the river— about one 
square mile. 

Males over 21 years of age 175 

Females and minors 251 



Total 426 

On the 15th of December an election was held to 
decide upon such organization with the following 
result. 

For organization 40 

Against organization 1 

On the same day an election was held for Trus- 
tees which resulted in the election of M. Mott 
F. Lebeau, C. H. Charles, Z. Lewis and O. c' 
Mottley. The Board elected Z. Lewis, President; 
T. D. Brewster, Clerk; Z. Lewis, jr. Constable; 
f nd James Myers, Assessor. On the 1st of April 
^839, O. C. Motley resigned and IL P. Wood- 
Worth was elected in his place. D. J. Townsend 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 9 

was afterwards ai^pointed Street Commissioner. 

The first religious meeting assembled in the 
locality was held in the early part of this year, 
in a log shanty, in the western part of the town. 
This meeting was attended by about a dozen 
young reprobates who concerted, that if the preach- 
er should confine himself to what they should 
judge to be the " appropriate sphere of his du- 
ties, " should preach piety and righteousness in 
the abstract without making any particular ap- 
plication thereof, or rebuking any particular prac- 
tice cherished by these self constituted censors, 
and should abstain from all offensive personal 
or local allusions, the most decorous propriety 
was to be observed. But if, on the contrary, he 
should see fit to indulge in any reproof of evil 
practices which they were conscious the commu- 
nity had credit for, whether justly or not, the in- 
dignity was to be instantly resented. In pur- 
suance of this concert they repaired to the place 
of worship, each provided with a tobacco pipe 
well filled, and a match. During the preliminary 
exercises and a portion of the sermon the most 
respectful attention and devout bearing were 
manifested ; but when the preacher unfortunately 



10 THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

indulged in illusions, believed by these cen- 
sors to be intended to have a direct local ap- 
plication, a rap on the beinch was made as a sig- 
nal by the leader, and instantly twelve matches 
were struck and twelve pipes lighted. No smile 
was seen and no word was spoken ; but twelve 
sedate and imperturbable smokers tugged \dgoro .is- 
ly at their pipes. The room was soon JS-lled with 
the smoke and aroma ; and after a few attempts 
at rebuke, ejaculated between stifled spasms of 
X30ughing, the preacher incontinently left; but 
not without making a stand at the door, where a 
few comparatively pure respirations were obtain- 
ed, and hurling back some rather unchristian 
anathemas upon the graceless and sacreligious 
scamps, whose scandalous conduct had so uncere- 
moniously put him to flight, and upon the peo- 
ple by whom they were tolerated. Of course, 
" the better part of community " set the seal of 
their disapprobation upon such disreputable and 
disorderly proceedings. 



CHAPTER II. 

Election in 1839 — Financial Crash — Condition of 
the Town — Anecdote illustrative of the scarci- 
ty ol money — Hog Story — Establishment of 
the Ninawa Gazette — Building of the first 
Chm'ch. 

At an election held on the 19th December 1839 
H. P. Woodworth, Simon Kinney, Z. Burnham, 
C. H. Charles, and Isaac Abraham were elected 
Trustees. Whole nmnber of votes polled 40. 

The Board elected Simon Kinney, President; 
M. Mott, Collector; T. D. Brewster, Treasurer; 
and Walter Meriman Clerk. In the course of the 
year Kinney resigned as Trustee and Meriman as 
Clerk, and Cornelius Cahill and James Bradford 
were elected to fill their respective places. The 
places of Burnham and Charles became vacant by 
death, and Ezra McKinzie and Churchill Cofiing 
were elected to fill them. In 1840 came the grand 
financial collapse. The foreign capitalist's refused 



12 THE HISTORY OF PERIT. 

to lend us any more money. The later residents 
of Illinois can scarcely comprehend the condition 
of things which preceded and ensned. By the 
Internal Improvement Act, which puts all Con- 
gressional omnibus bills entirely into the shade, a 
system of Kail Roads was to be commenced sim- 
nltaneously in all parts of the State, running in 
all manner of directions, through regions scarcely 
explored ; and counties which were not fortunate 
enough to lie in the direction of any place, and 
thus not to be traversed by Rail Roads, were 
bribed into the support of the bill by distributions 
of money, all to be borrowed on the faith of the 
State. Other acts were passed authorizing loans 
for prisons, hospitals, assylams and State Houses. 
At the same time the Canal was being prosecuted 
on State credit. Counties followed the example 
of the State by borrowing money to build Court 
Houses, Jails &c. But at length the bottom fell 
out of the whole concern. Unknown Millions 
had been squandered and not one public under- 
taking was completed. Pul)lic and private credit 
were annihilated. Northern Illinois produced 
nothing for exportation, and every kind of busi- 
ness was dependent upon the disbursements 



THE jriSTOEY OF VERV. 13 

\:ni'tlio public works. Tlie Stato, Counties, Towns, 
Banks, corporations and individuals were alike 
bankrupt. No gleam of light slione in the future. 
Repudiation, public and private, appeared to be 
the only alternative. Even the vampires who 
had been gorged upon the ti*easury were over- 
whelmed in the general avalanche. The few who 
had hoarded and possessed the means, left the 
State ; and emigration for years avoided it as 
though it had been one great hospital of lepers. 

Xo place experienced the general prostration 
more sensibly than Peru. The writer of this 
w4th a family to support, did not possess in the 
year 1841 in the aggregate, a sum of money 
€qual to five dollars. Lettei^ lay in the Post Of- 
fice from the inability of those to whom they 
were addressed to pay the postage. Kor was | 
this embarrassment confined to individuals. — 
■Gov. Ford once told the writer, that he had been 
compelled to allow letters, directed to Inm upon 
ofiicial business, to remain in the Federal Post 
Office, his own means or credit, or that of the 
Sovereign State of Illinois being insufficient to 
raise the embargo. Property of no kind had any 
apparent value whatever. The town gradually 



1-i THE HISTORY 0¥ VERU. 

lost its inhabitants, until in 1842, probably not 
over two hundred souls remained. These were 
mainly the less fortunate portion who could not 
get away. One Store, a Drug Shop, the Post 
Office, and two Taverns were the only places that 
remained open to the public. Society existed 
upon a truly republican basis. Ko envy was- 
excited in the breasts of the humble and poor by 
the brilliant equipages and establishments of 
the rich. The creditor who would have seriously 
asked payment of his debtor would have been 
saluted with one universal shout of derision. — 
As well might he have asked the sea to give up 
its dead. His money was gone to that bourne 
whence '^ nary red" would ever return. It was se- 
liously proposed to enact a law making every 
man's note a tender for debts — always excepting 
the notes of the creditor himself. This condition 
of things produced a state of society never wit- 
nessed by the writer, before or since. The pre- 
vailing influence was so universal and complete 
as to reduce all to a common level. A sympathy 
and community of feeling per\'aded all Illinois 
humanity. Thanks to a prolific soil and sparse 
population, nobody was in danger of starvation„ . 



THE HISTORY OF FERJJ. 15 

The following incident illustrates the scarcity 
and valne of money about this time. The only 
merchants who pretended to keep their stores 
open for business, and were able to replenish their 
stock, were the brothers A. one of them at present 
an estimable and valued citizen, and the other a 
worthy farmer li\dng in the neighborhood. Mon- 
ey was scarce wherewith to pay freights, and the 
only resoui^jce was to transport wheat, taken of 
the farmers for debts, to Chicago, a distance of 
one hundred miles, where it was worth about fifty 
cents per bushel. One of the persons employed 
in the transportation was a farmer named M. — 
One of the brothers and the writer accompanied 
the teams. After the wheat had been marketed 
and unloaded, M. with a very grave and serious 
face, desired a private conference with A. Ta- 
king him a little apai't fi-oni the writer, and speak- . 
iiig in a voice loud enough to be distinctly over- 
heard, he informed him that he was under the 
necessity of asking him for some money. A. 
started as if a snake had stung him. He express- 
ed surprise at such a sudden call, under the circum- 
stances, and reminded M. of the exertions and 
sacrifices which he had been compelled to make 



16 THE HISTORY OP PERU. 

to raise moiioy for charges, and that withal he 
had but barely enough for that purpose ; and 
concluded by hoping that his demands would be 
extremely limited. M. replied that they would 
be no more extensive than his necessities abso- 
lutely required, and he thought about '' two bits 
would do him. " This announcement greatly re- 
lieved A. who immediately responded to the de- 
mand. When it is understood, that the almost 
universal practice in traveling, at that time, was 
to " camp out, " the commissary department 
drawing its supplies from the domestic larder and 
<iorn crib, it will be perceived that " two bits " 
would go a good way in ekeing out the stores and 
supplying any deficiency. 

Another incident occurred about this time 
which also illustrates, in some degree, the spirit 
of the times. Two citizens who shall be named 
B. and M. had been in the habit of bantering 
each other about their poverty. M. persisted in 
assuming that he was not as poor as B., and that 
it was all owing to his superior address and finan- 
cial ability. This ridiculous assumpricai may be 
understood, when it is stated that neither party 
vcould, from every available resource, have raised 



THE HISTORY OF PBRIT. 17 

a sum ill money equal to the present price of a 
barrel of flour. M. complained to B. about hi« 
hogs running at large, and threatened that if they 
were permitted to annoy him he would shut 
them up and kill them. It so haj^pened that B. 
did not own a hog in the world — a fact which he 
was careful not to disclose. M. commenced to 
]mt his threat in execution by building an en- 
closure in which he incarcerated all vagrant hogs^ 
and proceeded to put them in a condition for 
slaughtering by a liberal appliance of corn and 
swill. These things did not escape the observa- 
tion of B. who waited patiently until the hogs 
were in a nice condition, when he called upon M. 
and rather angrily remonstrated with him upon 
committing so unneighborly an act as to secrete 
his hogs, alleging that he had searched dilligent- 
ly for them, and that great apprehensions had 
existed, lest his family might seriously suiFer for 
the want thereof. He reminded him of the cor- 
diality and good feeling which had previously 
existed between them, of their good natured jokes 
and banters, and of the general felicity wliicli 
they had enjoyed in each otliers wciety ; and 
read him a homily upon the advantages to l)e <lc' 



18 THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

rived from the practice of honesty and integrity. 
He insisted, however, upon the unconditional lib- 
eration of four particularly promising specimens 
of the genus, porker. To this M. demurred. — 
While he admitted that what B. had taken so 
much pains to remind him of, was in the main 
true, he urged that the corn wherewith he had 
fed the hogs was difficult to be obtained, that he 
had spent much time in feeding and taking care 
of them, and that it was not right for one man to 
take advantage of anothers' wrong act for his 
own^benefit. These arguments somewhat molli- 
fied B. who finally agreed to a compromise by 
w^hich M. was to continue feeding the hogs for a 
specified time, and then kill and dress them, and 
bring the carcasses of the two best to the house 
of B. This compact was carried into efiect in 
good faith. Shortly afterwards B. disclosed the 
history of this little operation which came to the 
ears of M. It is confidently believed that he 
never aftei'v^'ards boasted of his peculiar gifts of 
finesse. It is but fair to say, that the real owner 
of the hogs who had no share in the spoils, pock- 
eted his loss with admirable grace. 

In the course of the year 1839 the first news- 



THJI HISTORY OF PERU. 19 

paper published in Peru, was established by 
Ford, now Editor and proprietor of the " Lacon 
Gazette" in connection with Geo. W. Plolley 
who acted as editor, and was called the " Ninawa 
Gazette. " Mr. Holley was a gentleman of con- 
siderable literary reputation and made a paper 
which was eagerly sought for. His writings w^ere 
principally distinguished for their peculiar vein 
of humor and pleasantry. The paper was con- 
tinued until 1841, when the press and materials 
were removed to Lacon. 

The first Church built in the town, was ereoi^- 
ed by the Methodist's m the fall of 1838. 



CHAPTEK III. 

Election iu IS-iO — The Bangs Enterprise — Erec- 
tion of the Stone Church — Donation of the 
Bell — Yisit of Messrs. Yan Buren and Paul- 
ding. 

At an election held on the 18th December 1840, 
H. P. Woodworth, Churchill Coffing, Ezra Mc- 
Kinzie, Isaac Abraham and Geo. Low were elec- 
ted Trnstees. Whole number of votes polled 32. 
This Board elected Isaac Abraham their Presi- 
dent ; James Bradford Clerk ; James Myers, As- 
sessor; F. Lebeau Constable, T.D.Brewster Treas- 
urer; and M. Mott Street Commissioner. Subse- 
quently F. Mills was elected Constable in place 
of Lebeau who resigned, and John Hoffman Fire 
"Warden. 

On the 27tli February 1841 an act passed the 
Legis]ature chartering the La Salle and Dixon 
Pail Road, giving to the Corporation created, the 
right of way and materials belonging to that part 
of the old Central Pail Poad lying between the 



THE fllSTORY OF PEKU. 21 

two points named. During the year operations 
wore recommenced on this work, and a Bank of 
issue, pretended to be authorized by the Charter, 
was opened in La Salle. These oj^erations for a 
short time galvanized into life the prostrated ener- 
gies of the remaining inhabitants of Peru, but 
were shortly suc<jeeded by the bm-sting of the 
Avhole concern. The leading spirit of this move- 
ment was a man named A. II. Bangs, who suc- 
ceeded in making dupes or accomplices of several 
leading and influential inhabitants of La Salle and 
Lee Counties. After the explosion it was found 
that he was a mere adventurer, without character, 
reputation, capital or credit. ISTot an hundred 
dollars in cash or a dollar of good and reliable pa- 
per had been used in starting and continuing the 
construction of forty miles of Rail Road, and 
putting into operation a Bank which soon flooded 
the whole country with its worthless promises to 
pay, and draw liberally upon its imaginary eas- 
tern and foreign correspondents. The contrac- 
tors were, of course, unable to pay the laborers, 
and the farmers who had supplied them with pro- 
visions. The former, enraged by their wrongs, 
attempted to wreak their vengeance upon the per- 



22 THE HISTORY OF PEK0. 

son of the culprit, Bangs. They seized and drag- 
ged him through tlie muddy streets of tlie town. 
He was finally rescued by the citizens, partly 
through menaces and partly through intercession, 
without material injury, placed in a skiff, and sent 
down the river. Had he possessed one thousand 
dollars in real cash, there is not a doubt but that he 
would have been able to finish and put in oj^era- 
tion the road, and to have gone on swimingly with 
his Bank for years ; such was the confidence, and 
it might be added, reverence, which a real '' cap- 
italist " would at that time have inspired. The 
relapse was, if possible, more depressing than the 
former exj^erience. 

During this year the second Church — a small 
but substantial stone edifice, at present occupied 
by the Episcopal Society — was erected by the 
liberality of T. D. Brewster, Esq., for the Con- 
gregationalist Society. For the use ot the Soci- 
ety worshiping in this building, a valuable bell 
was donated by the late John C. Cofting of Salis- 
bury, Connecticut, father of our distinguished 
townsman, Hon. Churchill Cofling. 

In the summer Mr. Yan Buren, then lately 
retired from the Presidency, accompanied by 



THB HISTOtlY Ot PBRU. 23 

James K. Paulding then late Secretary of the 
Navy, made a tour through the western States, 
and was everywhere received with an ovation. — 
A Committee was appointed in Peru to receive 
and escort them to Ottawa. There was then re- 
siding here a young man, a carpenter by trade and 
a great wag, rejoicing in the name America Jones. 
There also lived here a " Doctor " Harrison, 
more famous for his eflrontery and obtrusive decla- 
mation than for his medical learning or skill. He 
came armed with a diploma or certificate from the 
Berrien County, Michigan, Medical Society, signed 
" E. Winslow, President. " His attainments and 
accomplishments were by no means confined to 
the healing and dissecting art, according to his 
own persistent declaration. They embraced che 
grand encyclopedia of science. He was a pugi- 
list, and boasted of many a hard earned field ; he 
was an advocate of the dueling code, and under- 
stood precisely the etiquette of the field of Hon- 
or, and was ready, should anybody knock a chip 
from his shoulder, to put in practice the theory 
which he so eloquently expounded, although it is 
believed that he never absolutely asserted that his 
chivalry had been put to the test ; he was a musi- 



24 THE HI9T0EY OF PEKU, 

cian and an expert at games, particularly " seven 
up " and '' poker ;" and lie was a military gentle- 
man. He lias since attained the rank of Major 
General, in the service of the State of Micliiofan. 
AYitli tliis brilliant array of accomplishments lie 
naturally attracted the attention of the communi- 
ty, and what was more to the purpose, obtained a 
very lucrative practice. He numbered among his 
admirers people in all grades ol society. Most 
zealous among these was a gentleman — an emi- 
nent civil engineer — of a high professional and- 
social position. America Jones, above mentioned, 
concocted a scheme very well calculated to cure 
him of his extraordinary devotion to the Doctor, 
and confidence in his professions; and at the 
same time to indulge his own innate propensity 
for fun, at the expense of the engineer and aiiotli- 
ei' prominent citizen — a lawyer — at present resi- 
dent. Jones became suddenly very efficient and 
'' numerous " at a meeting called to make arrange- 
ments for the reception of the distinguished ^asi- 
tors, although it was probably the first time in 
his life that he had ever seriously taken part in 
any thing of the kind, being generally content t^D 
look on and distort the action of others into some 



THE IIISTOKY (jb' PERU. 26 

ludicrous phase. Xow Jones had a very clear 
perception of the Doctor's real merit. lie un- 
derstood instinctively the difference between 
that and his bombastic pretensions. He knew, 
too, that his vanity and egotism were only to be 
adroitly excited, and he would throw himself in 
a general and continued splurge, in any presence. 
So he obtained a place for himself and the Doctor 
on the committee of recej)tion, escort and ar- 
rangements. On the trip to Ottawa, he contrived 
to occup}' a carriage in comj^any with the Doctor, 
the tAvo guests, and the two citizens above refer- 
red to. Once on the road, Jones found means to 
gradually laimch the Doctor into the field of gen- 
eral declamation. The latter described the scene- 
ry in terms of poetic eulogy ; he exhibited his 
erudition in the early history of the country ; he 
analyzed, in the most scientific manner, the waters 
of the " Sulphur Springs, " and branched oft' into 
the abstract laws of chemistry generally ; he ex- 
temporised an essay upon political economy; 
he discussed the character of distinguished co- 
temporary politicians and statesmen ; he repeated 
all the stale newspaper anecdotes and scandal 
concerning the public men of the day ; he assert- 



*26 THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

ed his belief that somebody, down on the Mo- 
hawk or somewhere else, once ^^a•ote a very fool- 
ish book, called the " Dutchman's Fireside; " he 
reviewed and|criticised the battles of the Revo- 
lution and the naval engagements of the last war 
with England ; he recounted his own exploits 
and prowess in many a pugilistic encounter ; and 
he indulged in terms of unbounded compliment 
to, and admiration of the more distinguished por- 
tion of his auditory, lamenting tliat his father 
had not lived to learn the transcendant honor 
which had befallen his son, in actually riding in 
the same carriage with such illustrious personages. 
These efforts occupied nearly the entire journey 
to Ottawa, to the unutterable chagrin and annoy- 
ance of the two citizens, and the infinite delight 
and amusement of Jones. How Messrs. Yan 
BuREN and Paulding enjoyed the society of the 
committee is not known. 



CHAPTEK lY. 

Elections in 1841 — Elections in 18-12— Resump- 
tion of work on the Canal — Improvement in 
Business — First arrival of Steamboats in the 
Spring. 

At an election held on the lltli December 
1841, the same Trustees were elected who served 
the preceeding year. Chtjrchill Coffing was 
elected President; J. Bradford, Clerk; T. D. 
Brewster, Treasurer and Collector; H. Leon- 
ard, Assessor ; F. Mills, Constable ; H. S. Bee- 
be, Street Commissioner ; and J. Hoffman, Fire 
Warden. 

During the year 1842, no event is recollected of 
sufficient importance to justify a record. The 
general stagnation continued. Illinois had be- 
come as stagnant and inactive as Cathay. People 
could not be said to live — they merely vegetated. 
At an election held on the 15th December 1842, 
Churchill Coffing, Isaac Abraham, John 
Hoffman, T. D. Brewster, and H. S. Beebe, 



28 THE HISTORY OF PEKt. 

were elected Trustees. This Board elected James 
Bradfokd, Clerk; S. "W. Raymond, Constable; 
and T. D. Brewster, Treasurer. 

On the 21st February, lSi3, "An Act to pro- 
vide for the completion of the Illinois and Michi- 
gan Canal, and the payment of the Canal debt '' 
passed the Legislature. Energetic and sagacious 
measures were at once devised and put into op- 
eration for the completion of that great work. To 
Gov. Ford, Senator Ky.v]\" and Col. O.UvLet, 
is due the credit of de^'ising the scheme which 
heralded to the people of Ilhnois the return of 
prosperity. Tliis measm-e was soon followed by 
gradual improvements in the town. Consider- 
able accessions to its population took place, ware- 
houses and workshops began to be erected, and 
ever^'thing soon assumed the appearance of thrift 
and progress. 

During the season of stag-nation, the daily ar- 
rival of steamboats from Saint Louis, the debark- 
ation of their passengers, and their departure for 
Chicago, by Frink, Walker vfc Co's. coaches, ten- 
ded more to enliven the town than all other 
causes combined. This route became a popular 
one for southern travel, via., the Lakes to New 



THE UlSTORY OF PEKU. 29 

York, particularly during the warmer season ; 
and it was no uncommon tiling to witness the 
departure of from live to ten four-horse post coach- 
es together. The first arrival of a steamboat in 
the Spring was always hailed as a great event. 
Two or tliree months of isolation had sharpened 
the appetites of the people for intercourse with 
the great world. The first faint putf, away down 
among the cotton woods, was caught upon the 
ear of some anxious and expectant listener, and 
forthwith the news spread with woriderful celerity 
throughout the town. AH the men and hoys 
gathered upon the landing ; all the women and 
girls upon the hill-tops. When the boat hove in 
sight, conjectures Hew thick and fast as to what 
boat she was ; everybody had some theory found- 
ed upon the particular manner of her ' scape, the 
ball upon her jack-staff, tlie ornaments upon her 
chimneys, or some other distinguishing mark 
which each prided himself upon knowing and re- 
membering. When she came within hailing dis- 
tance, what a hurrah went up from the landing ! 
What a waving of handkerchiefs from the bluffs ! 
Then when her keel fairly grated upon the peb- 
bles of the l)ank, and a plank was run o\er lier 



30 THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

side, what a rush over all her parts ! What a 
shaking of hands all round ! What congratula- 
tions and welcomes were extended to officers and 
crew, from captain to firemen ! These over, the 
truth of history extorts the admission, that the 
space around the bar became the grand rendez- 
vous. A short time spent in this neighborhood 
by no means tended to lessen the general hilarity 
and uproar. The news of the arrival of a steam- 
boat soon sj)read throughout the country. The in- 
habitants of the interior, inland village of Ottawa, 
in a very leisurely and dignified way, harnessed 
up their teams and made a pilgrimage to Peru, 
on pretence of business, but in point of fact to see 
a real steamboat. 



CHAPTER Y. 

Elections in 1843 — Revenue — Effoi-ts for dividing 
the County — Elections in 1844: — Special Char- 
ter — Elections in 1845 — Revenue — Return of 
Prosperity — Elections in 1846 — Establishment 
of the " Beacon Light " — Name Changed to 
" Junction Beacon " — Formation of Hook and 
Ladder Company. 

At an election held on the 20th of January, 
1843, Churchill Coffing, John R. Merritt, Z. Lew- 
is, Ambrose O'Conner and John Hoffman were 
elected Trustees. Whole number of votes 92. — 
This Board elected Churchill Coffing, President ; 
and T. D. Brewster, Treasurer. The revenue 
arising from taxes on Real Estate was $262. 

Peru, from her earliest history,^.had aspired to 
become a county seat. Situated upon the extreme 
western verge of the County of La Salle, she 
comtemplated erecting a new one out of territory 
to be taken from La Salle,- Bureau and Putnam. 
This scheme was strenously resisted by Ottawa 



32 THE HISTORY OF PERtl. 

and the eastern portion of the county. A cur- 
t^ihnent on the north and east was cheerfully 
submitted to, in order to assist in preventing the 
loss of the western jewel. Much acrimony was 
engendered by these contests ; and all elections 
for county officers or State Legislature hinged up- 
on this question. The Democratic party was 
largely in the ascendant ; but the schemes of the 
politicians of that ilk were constantly baffled by 
the intrusion of this element. The completion of 
the Canal and Rail Road, furnishing facilities for 
travel between the two places, mainly put a sto}> 
to further agitation. 

At an election held on the 25tli November, 
1844, Churchill Coffing, H. Whitehead, David 
Dana, Wm. Paul and S. W. Raymond were elec- 
ted Trustees. Whole nmnber of votes 45. This 
Board elected H. Whitehead, President ; H. S. 
Beebe, Clerk ; J. B. Lovett, Fire Warden ; Isaac 
A])raham, Treasurer; O. C. Parmerly, Street 
Commissioner; Geo. Low, Collector and Asses- 
or ; and E. M. Moore, Constable. 

On the 25th February, 1845, an xlct passed the 
Legislature, extending the powers of the Trus- 
tees, and providing for their election in the fol 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. SS 

lowing April. 

At an election held on the Tth April, 1845, 
Churchill Coffing, David Dana, S. W. Raymond, 
"Wm. Panl and H. Whitehead were elected Trus- 
tees. Whole number of votes polled 39. 

This Board elected Herman Whitehead, Presi- 
dent; II. S. Beebe, Clerk; O. C. Parisierly, 
Street Commissioner ; IsxIAc D. Harmon, Trea- 
surer; George Low^, Assessor and Collector; 
E. M. Moore, Constable ; and J. B. Lovett, 
Fire Warden. By the death of Moore, the office 
of Constable soon became vacant, and Z. Lewis, 
jmiior, was elected to fill it. The revenue,arising 
from the tax on Real Estate, was this year $261,- 
86 cents. 

A degree of prosperity had now been attained, 
little dreamed oi three years before. A large trade 
had gradually grown up and concentrated in Peru. 
It was no uncommon thing to see wagons loaded 
with produce, from a distance of sixty, eighty and 
an hundred miles, seeking a market at this point, 
and returning loaded with merchandise purchas- 
ed here. General health, contentment and pros- 
perity prevailed. Stores and dwellings continued 
to be built, and population to increase. 



34 THE HISTORY OF PEKU. 

At an election lield on the 6th April, 18:1:6, 
Jacob S. Beach, Churchill Coffing, "William 
Chumasero, A. M. Thrall and James Cahill were 
elected Trustees. Whole number of votes 96. 
This Board elected Churchill Coffing, President ; 
H. S. Beebe, Clerk ; George Low, Assessor and 
Collector ; S. W. Raymond, Street Commission- 
er; I. D. Harmon, Treasm-er; David Perry, 
Constable ; and S. IST. Maze, Fire Warden. H. 
F. Killum was subsequently elected Street Com- 
missioner, in place of Raymond who resigned. 

In May, another weekly newspaper was estab- 
lished by ITash and Elliott, and called the " Bea- 
con Light." Mr. Nash is the present Clerk of 
the Circuit Court of La Salle county. The name 
of this paper was changed to that of " Junction 
Beacon." It continued about two years under 
the management of Mead, Higgins and Boyle, 
either together or successively, and went out. 

On the 5th December an ordinance was passed, 
authorizing the formation of a Hook and Ladder 
Company, which was the first, last and only at- 
tempt to form a Fire Department. The principle 
effect and probable design of this ordinance was 
to exempt the members enrolled, from the per- 



THB HISTORY OF PERU. 35 

formance of jury duty. Thirty-five dollars were 
appropriated for implements ; but it is believed 
that none were ever capable of being brought in- 
to use, in cases of emergency, although the town 
has been devastated since, with many and serious 
fires. 



CHAPTEE YI. 

Election in 1817— Cemetery laid out — Election 
in ISiS — Completion of tlie Canal — Effect on 
Peru — Diversion of Trade to La Salle — Estab- 
lishment of the ''Peru Telegraj^h" — Erection 
of the fii'st Grain Ware House — Great Fresh- 
et. 

At an election held on the 5th April, 1847, 
Chui'chill Cbffing, Wm. Chumasero, Geo. "W. 
Gilson, Joseph P. Turner and Daniel O. SulUvan 
were elected Trustees. Whole number of votes 
63. This Board elected Wm. Chumasero, Presi- 
dent ; S. W. Raymond, Clerk ; James Elliott, 
Street Commissioner ; H. S. Beebe, Treasm-er ; 
Qeo. Low, Assessor ; David Perry, Collector ; 
Joseph P. Turner, Fire Warden ; and H. W. 
Baker, Clerk. Soon after, Paymond resigned 
and E. S. Holbrook was elected in his place. 

The Cemetery, one mile north of the town, 
was purchased and laid out by this Board. 

At an election held in April, 1848, Erasmus 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 37 

Winslow, p. M. Kildnff, I. C. Day, John Morris 
and S. jN". Maze were elected Trustees. "Whole 
number of votes 128. This Board elected Eras- 
mus Winslow, President ; David Perry, Clerk ; 
James Elliott, Collector ; H. W. Baker, Street 
Commissioner; F. S. Day, Treasurer; J. P. 
Thompson, Constable ; and Dennis Dunnavan, 
Fire Warden. Thompson was subsequently elec- 
ted Street Commissioner, in place of Baker who 
failed to qualify, and Fire Warden in place of 
Dunnavan who was removed. 

The completion of the Canal, in the Spring of 
this year, forms an era in the history of the town, 
and indeed of the State. Its eifect upon the town, 
however, was not so marked and immediate as 
upon the sister town of La Salle, which 
then, for the first time, attracted general public 
attention, and became a formidable rival to her 
older sister. Upon the latter its favorable effects 
were more apparent in the course of the two or 
three following years, when the increased pros- 
perity of the country reacted upon it. The travel, 
which had always centered at Peru, was mainly 
diverted to La Salle. Although the waters of the 
Canal and River were united at Peru, it was soon 



38 THB HISTORY OF PERtT. 

found, that in consequence of the Steamboat and 
Canal Boat Basin being at La Salle, the practical 
junction was there. The forwarding business, af- 
ter a long and ineffectual struggle on the part of 
Peru to retain it, finally settled at that point. 

In October Holbrook and Underbill established 
a weekly paper, called the " Peru Telegraph. " 

The first substantial Stone "Ware House built in 
the town was erected this year, directly upon the 
riv^er bank, by T. D. Brewster, Esq. 

The Spring of 1849 was remarkable for the 
greatest flood known since the settlement of the 
country. There had been heavy rains in the 
month of January which raised the river out of 
its banks, overflowing all the bottoms. The 
weather changed to cold suddenly and froze the 
waters, in many places from bluff to bluff, into a 
broad crystaline Lake. Such was the case on 
the bottom above the toT^n, which was covered 
with a sheet of ice for nearly six miles, to Utica. 
This mass of intercepted water, together with all 
the country drained by the head branches of the 
river, was afterwards covered with a heavy mass 
of snow. About the first of March the weather 
again suddenly became warm, and heavy rains 



taS HIStoUY Dt PERtJ. 39 

set in, whicli soon loosened tlie accumulations of 
snow and ice. Every creek and run contributed 
a flood, and every ravine and slougli a torrent to 
the swelling river, which on the 9th of March 
was twenty-five ffeet, or more, above low water- 
Its sudden rise loosened the heavy masses of ice 
spread over the bottoms above, without breaking 
them up. One of these came down, miles in 
length and breadth, entirely filling the space be- 
sween the bluffs, and crushed everything in its 
course. Trees, indicating a growth of centuries, 
were as reeds in its path, producing no check to 
its resistless and majestic motion. The Ware 
House, heretofore mentioned as being built by Mr. 
Brewster, then occupied by Brewster and Beebe, 
was crushed like an ecrg shell. It was nearly 
filled with wheat, flour and merchandise, a por- 
tion of which had been hastily removed, and a 
portion w^as destroyed. The waters soon subsi- 
ded and the river became very low before the 
close of navigation in the fall. This was 
the greatest freshet which has taken place since 
the settlement of the country by the Whites, but 
the Indians related to the early settlers accounts 
of still higher waters. They have asserted that 



^0 THB HISTORY OF PERU. 

the present site of Ottawa lias been submerged 
witliin the memory of those now living. Sha- 
bone, an Indian well known in j^orthern Illinois, 
is reported to have said that he has passed over 
it in a canoe. In 1841, the great freshet occurred 
in the Mississippi, raising the waters in the lower 
part of the 111. still higher than they afterwards 
were in 1819. This was not the case with the 
upper portion of the river. An idea is current 
in this part of the country, that great freshets 
recur, continuing throughout the greater portion 
of the summer, once in seven years. This notion 
is justified by the recurrence of protracted fresh- 
ets in 1830, 1837, 1811, 1851 and 1858. Mr. 
Meginness, in his '' Otzinachson " or '' History of 
the West Branch of the Susquehanna, " mentions 
that the same impression prevailed in that region 
concerning freshets, only that theirs recurred once 
in fourteen years. 



CHAPTEE yil. 

Election in 18dt9 — First appearance of Cliolera — 
Elections in 1850 — Project for a Hail Koad to 
Aurora — Burning of the E'ational Hotel — Es- 
tablishment of the " Peru Democrat " — The 
issue of $25,000 Bonds authorized on account of 
Peru and Rock Island Pail Poad — United States 
Census — Incorporation of the City — Territory 
embraced in City Limits — Elections under the 
Chai'ter in 1851 — Question of issuing Bonds on 
account of subscription to the Stock of Chicago 
and Pock Island Pail Poad decided unanimous- 
ly in the affirmative at an Election — Pesurvey of 
the City — Issue of $40,000 of Bonds — Organiza- 
tion of the Central Pail Poad Company — Pro- 
test of Peru against the place of crossing the 
Piver — Peru and Grandetom* Plank Poad. 
At an election held on the 2d April, 1849, P. 

JVI. Kildutif', Fredeiick Kaiser, S. N. Maze, Noah 

Sapp and^David Lininger were elected Trustees. 

Whole number of Yotes 159. This Board elec- 



4:2 THE HISTORY OF PERtJ. 

ted P. M. Kilduif, President ; Erasmus "Winslow, 
Clerk ; Ezra McKinzie, Assessor ; James Caliill, 
Collector ; J. P. Thompson, Street Commissioner, 
Constable and Fire Warden ; and H. S. Beebe, 
Treasm*er. In consequence of tlie absence of 
Beebe, H. L. Tuller was elected Treasurer in his 
place. 

In the Spring of this yeatthe cholera first made 
its appearance in the "West. In the months of 
April and Maj several citizens fell ^actims to the 
disease. On the 20th of June it suddenly as- 
sumed a malignant and virulent character, and 
some hundreds were swept off in the course of 
three or four weeks. The citizens were general- 
ly panic stricken, and many fled. It suddenly 
ceased, and the season thenceforth was healthy. 

In the summer of this year the second perma- 
nent and substantial warehouse, directly upon the 
river, was erected by Churchill Coffing, Esq. 

At an election held on the 1st April, 1850, T. 
D. Brewster, I. D. Harmon, William Paul, Eras- 
mus Winslow and William Poush were elected 
Trustees. Whole number of votes 49 — This Board 
elected Wilham Paul, President ; P. M. Kilduif, 
Clerk; H. L. Tuller, Treasurer; Geo. Low, 



tHE HI8T0HY OF PEKU. 43 

Assessor ; J. P. Tlionipson, Street Commission- 
er ; Michael Griffith, Constable ; Edmunrl Penn- 
ington, Fire Warden; James Cahill, Collector; 
and Erasmus Winslow, Health Commissioner ; 
During this year the subject of Railroads began 
to attract the attention of the people of Illinois. 
The inhabitants of the town were a good deal ex- 
cited about the location of one from Aurora, in 
Kane county, to Peru, via. Ottawa. Subscrip- 
tions were raised, and one hundred dollars were 
appropriated from the treasury to defray the ex- 
^^enses of the survey. This road was never con- 
structed, but the interests of the town were after- 
wards satisfied by the construction of the Aurora 
Extension, and Chicago and Burlington, crossing 
the Illinois Central at Mendota. 

In August, the National Hotel, owned by Z. 
Lewis Esq., was destroyed by fire. This was the 
largest and best building in the town, and was the 
first serious loss by fire. 

In this year, Adam Lerch was appointed Street 
Commissioner, in place of Thompson who was re- 
moved. 

In October Hammond and "Welch established 
the " Peru Democrat " a weekly newspaper. It 



4:4: THE HISTORY OF PEKU. 

soon took a high rank and became one of the 
leading and most influential papers in the interi- 
or of the State. Thomas W. Welch, the editor 
of this paper, gave promise of great usefulness in 
future years. He was a vigorous writer, energet- 
ic and industrious, and imparted a degree of 
vivacity and spirit to his sheet, rarely met with 
in country newspapers. He was born at Reading, 
England, and died at Princeton, Illinois, on the 
26th September, 1852, aged twenty-nine years. 

On the 9th JNovember a resolution passed the 
Board, authorizing a subscription on the part of tli# 
town, of |25j000 towards the capital stock of the 
Kock Island and Peru Railroad, on condition that 
the road should make its eastern terminus on 
section 16. 

By the returns of the United States c ensus for 
1850 there were 4,500 inhabitants in the town ! 
That this was an error is most manifest. A steady 
increase of population and dwellings took place 
from this period to the first of June, 1854, when 
by a census carefully taken, by one of the citizens, 
there were only 3,036 inhabitants. A similar in- 
crease has been going on mitil the present time, 
when there are found to be only 3,652. If such 



THE HISTORY OF PEEU. 45 

a decrease has taken place where are the tene- 
ments vacated ? A similar error occnrs in the 
United States census returns of La Salle, the 
population of which is set down at 3,201. A cen- 
sus, taken by the authority of the town soon after, 
exhibited 1,100 ! It is probable that the census 
taker was contented with the answer of the first 
man he met, of whom he enquired the amount of 
population, and that this person happened to be 
a large lot holder. Generally, in such cases, if the 
amount stated be divided by two, an approximate 
result may be obtained. 

'On the 15th March, 1851, the town of Peru 
was incorporated as a City. Tlie territory incor- 
porated embraced the South half of Section 10, 
the South East quarter of Section 17, the JSTorth 
East fractional quarter of Section 20 and all of 
Section 21 North of the river. The extent of 
territory embraced in the City, was forty-eight 
acres less than that in the borough, that part of 
Section 21 included containing forty-five acres, 
while the Korth West fractional quarter of Sec- 
tion 20 excluded contained ninety-three acres. — 
This territory was divided into two wards. The 
leading motive in petitioning for this Charter un-^ 



4:6 THB HISTORY OF PERU. 

doubtedlj was to enable the City to issue Bonds 
on account of Rail Road subsciiptions. 

The first election held under this Charter was 
held in April, 1851, which resulted in the elec- 
tion of T. D. Brewster, Mayor ; Geo. W. Gilson 
and Jacob S. Miller, Aldermen for the First Ward, 
and Erasmus Winslow and John Morris, Aldermen 
for the Second Ward. Whole number of votes 
196. — By the provisions of the Charter, the Alder, 
men were to be elected for two years — two out of the 
first four retiring at the end of the first year — to 
be determined by lot. Gilson and Winslow drew 
the long term. This Council elected Churchill 
Coffing, Clerk; P. M. Kilduff, Treasurer; F. 8. 
Day, Assessor ; A. Roberts, Marshall ; Z. Lewis, 
Street Commissioner ; and James Cahill Collec- 
tor. 

The question of issuing Bonds on account of 
subscription to the Stock of the Rock Island and 
La Salle Rail Road, (the Charter having been so 
amended as to continue the road to Chicago,) 
was submitted to a vote of the peoj)leon the 17th 
May. The vote in the afiirmative was unani- 
mous. 

Conflicting claims having arisen out of discrep- 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 47 

ancies between former surveys of the town, a 
new survey was ordered and establislied by or- 
dinance, and other measures taken to legalize the 
act. 

Onthe22d February, 1852, the Kail Road 
Charter having been again amended and the 
Company denominated the Chicago and Rock 
Island Rail Road Company, the question of an 
issue of Bonds on account of subscription to its 
Stock, to the extent of $40,000, including the 
$25,000 previously authorzied, w^as submitted to 
a vote of the people. Strenuous exertions had been 
made to defeat the subscription ; and this time 
there were found to be 16 votes in the negative 
to 280 in the affirmative. $40,000 of 10 per 
cent Bonds were issued, and the same amount was 
subscribed to the Stock of the Road, which du- 
ring the fall and winter was commenced and 
vigorously prosecuted. 

The certificates of stock thus subscribed for 
were, by virtue of section 5 of an ordinance passed 
12th April, 1852, to remain with the Rock Island 
Raikoad Company in trust, pledged for the pay- 
ment of the bonds and interest, and convertable 
into stock at the option of the holder ; thus giving 



:1:^ THE HISTORY OF PEKIT. 

Ill in tlie advantage of any advance of the stock 
above par, while the City must pocket the loss of 
any depresi^ion below. The interest due on the 
1st ^' oveniber was paid by means of a loan author- 
ized by the Council on the 18th October. Inter- 
est scrip of an equal amount was issued by the 
Company, convertable into stock on the com- 
pletion ot the Road. 

In the winter, the charter of the Illinois Cen- 
tral Railroad company was granted. The lands, 
formerly ceded by Congress, were donated to this 
company, upon the condition that they should 
build a road troni the mouth of the Ohio to the 
junction of the canal and Illinois river, with 
branches Szc. The same terms were prescribed by 
Congress in the act of cession. The people of 
Peru assumed, that by tins it was intended that it 
should terminate at the pier head, where the waters 
of the canal and river unite. The company pro- 
ceeded to build the bridge across the river at the 
mouth of the Little Yermillion, a mile and a-lialf 
abo^'^e. This drew forth a vigorous protest from 
the City Council which was duly forwarded to the 
officers of the company, and to the proper Depart- 
ment at Washinojton. I^othing however came of 



TllK JllSTuRY OF TEKU. 

49 

it, and the coiiipauy proceeded to complete their 
works accordinti' to tlieir ori<>'inal phm. This gave 
to the rival City of La Salle still further advan- 
tages, by way for facilities of trade, north and 
south. 

On the 5th February, 1S50, the Peru and 
Grandetour Plank Road company was organized, 
under a charter ])reviously obtained, by the elec- 
tion of T. I). Brewster, J. IT. McMillan, William 
Paul and J. L. McCormick of Peru, Tracy Reeve 
of Lamoile, F. R. Butcher of Shelburn, and Solon 
Cuiiimings of Grandetour, Directors. In Sej)- 
tember, 1851, so much of the road was completed 
as justilied, under the charter, the collection of 
tolls. It was afterwards completed . as far as Ar- 
lington, in Bureau county, and partially construct- 
ed to Lamoile. This enterprize was looked u])on 
a> promising great advantages, not only to the 
town, but also to the country through whicli it 
passed. The result demonstrated tliat these ex- 
pectations were reasonable. The large trafic 
which passed over it, for a few succeeding years, 
ould not by any possiljility have existed without 
it. It was originally contemplated to finish it t(y 
Grandetour, on Rock river, !)ut want of fuud.^ de- 



5; I T]IE HISToKY OF I'lCRU. 

laved the work, until tlie construction of intersect- 
ing lines of Railroads, in a degree, superseded its 
necessity. The road has since been allowed to 
I'un down,, and the plank have been removed. 
The company at present do not pretend to exer- 
cise any control over it. For a great portion of 
the present season, it lias been in so bad a condi- 
tio]! as to be quite impassable for loaded teams, 
and nearly so for vehicles of any description. Thus 
cut off from the trade of the north by bad roads, 
and of the south by the difficulty in crossing the 
river and bottom, the only resource that remained 
to the trading portion of the community, was to 
trade with each other. In this it is to be hoped 
they have been as successful as the boys who 
traded jack-knives with each other all day. 



CHAPTER Yill. 

Election:^ in 1852— Reappoai-aiioe of tlie Cliol- 
ora— Operations on the Kail Road— Elections 
in 1858 — Resignation of tlie Mayor and new 
Election— Issue of $10,000 eight per cent. 
Market House Bonds— Opening of the Chicago 
and Rock Island Rail Road to Peru— Estalj- 
lishnient of the " Peru AYeeklj Chronicle " and 
"Daily Chronicle '^—E. Higgms & Co's and 
McMillan iSz Co's Stores burnt—Elections in 
1854— Blue Ballot Question— Manner of Pay- 
ing Interest on Bonds— Opening of the Rail 
Road to Rock Island — Census — Conijjletion of 
the Market House and issue of §2,600 Bonds. 
At an election held on the 5th day of April, 
1852, T. 1). Brewster was reelected Mayor, Jolin 
Morris elected Alderman for the Frst Ward, and 
C. R. Holmes for the Second. Whole number of 
votes, 220. The Council elected I. D. Taylor, 
Cloi'k ; P. M. Kilduff, Treasurer ; E. S. Holbrook, 



52 THE HISTOKY OF rEItU. 

Assessor ; Richard Lonsbiiry, Collector and Street' 
commissioner ; and Fredrick Scluilte, Marslial. 
Dm'ing tlie Smnmer, t!ie Cholera again made 
its appearance, and with increased violence. — 
From the first settlement of the town to 1849, 
with the exception of the years 1838 and 1839, ' 
wlien ]>illious levers prevailed to some extent, 
the inhabitants had enjoyed immunity from dis- 
ease, seldom experienced in new western settle- 
ments, or indeed in any other. For the space of 
one year, no death occurred except from casnal- 
ity. Even the ague found few, if any subjects. 
Throughout the summers of 1850 and 1851, 
cholera continued its ravages in the surrounding 
towns and country, and visited Peru but slightly. 
In the early part of the summer of 1852, while 
La Salle and other contiguous places were scourg- 
ed, Peru remained healthy. At length it appear- 
ed to have spent its material and departed the en- 
tire country. Suddenly it reappeared ; and while 
the places previously aifiicted remained healthy, 
Peru was devastated to an extent not surpassed, 
if equaled, by any place in the United States. 
The estimated number of victims was from five to 
six hundred, being about 07ie-sixMi of the entire 



THE inSTOliY OF TEKU. oH 

population. It was observed that less panic and 
excitement were produced than upon its visitation 
in 18^9. But few cases occurred in the two fol- 
lowing years ; and from that time to the present — 
1858 — the same freedom from disease has prevail- 
ed which distinguished its early settlement. 
Throughout this year operations on the Kailroad 
were pushed forward with great energy. 

At an election held on the 4:th. April, 1853, 
P. M. Kilduff and 11. S. Beebe each received 111 
votes for Mayor. Churchill Coffiing was elected 
Alderman for the First Ward, and John L. Coates 
for the Second Ward. On counting the votes lor 
Mayor, a question arose concerning the validity 
of a ballot deposited for Boebe. By the statute 
it is provided that if, upon counting the votes 
given at any election, two ballots shall bo found 
folded together, attempt at fraud shall bo pre- 
sumed and both ballots thrown out. In this ease on< 
piece of paper was found with the name of Becb( 
printed on it twice. It was decided by the Coun 
cil that no evidence of attempt at fraud av a-; her( 
presented, that none could by any possibility b' 
thus perpetrated, and that the ballot should b' 
counted as one vote. By this decision a tie exisi 



.54 



THE I1I.-?T(>KY OF PEKT. 



ed. The election was then decided l)y lot, agree- 
aMe to the provisions of an ordinance for the case 
provided, in lavor of Beel^e. The Council elect- 
ed J. D. Taylor, Clerk; J. Y. 11. Judd and R. 
P. Wi'iglit, a board of Health ; J. L. Coatcs, Trea- 
surer; E. S. Holbrook, Assessor; James Cahill, 
Collector; J. P. Thompson, Marshal; T. E. G. 
Kansom,. Surveyor ; and A. F. Powers, Sexton. 
Tiie place of John Morris becoming vacant by 
means of his removal from the Ward, J. L. 
McCormick was elected Alderman in his place. 
The May intei-est on the Railroad bonds was pro- 
vuied for in the same manner as oji tlie prececlino- 
Xo\'ember. ^ 

On tlie 21st May Eeebe resigned as Mayor, 
I! id a new election was ordered which resulted in 
rlie election of Kilduff by 52 majority, Beebe being 
igain his opponeiit. VVliole number of votes 298 

On the 20th August $5,000 of bonds, bearing 
LMi per cent, interest, were authorized to be issued 
'>rtlie puj-pose of building a City Hall and for 
Mil-rent expenses; and on the iTth September 
•aO,000 of bonds, bearing eiglit per cent, interest, 
vere authorized to be issued for the same purpose! 
["he i-n5,000 bonds first authoi-ized were never 
:;sued. 



THE IlISTOKV OF I'EKl . i)') 

111 A])ril of this year the Chicago and Ituck 
J.shiiid Kailroad was opoiiedfor tralhe aii<l travel 
to Peru. 

The " Peru Weekly Clironicle " was estal>]ished 
by J. F. aiidls^. Linton, on the 1st March, and its 
pnblication was continued until September, ISdC). 
For ten months during this perio/l, tlie Messrs. 
Linton also j^ublished a "Daily Clironicle" 
which Avas in all respects creditable to them and 
to the town. About the bemnnino' of this year a 
serious tire took place on Water street, which de- 
stroyed two large three-story stone stores, with 
most of their contents, one occupied by E. Hig- 
gins & Co. as a Hardware store, and the other by 
J. II. McMillan & Co. as a Dry Goods store. 

At an election held on the 26th April, 1854, T. 
D. Brew^ster was elected Mayor, Antoinc Birken- 
buel, Alderman for the First Ward, David Dana 
for the Second Ward, and John P. Thompson, 
Police Magistrate. The Council elected Henry 
Jones, Clerk ; Geo. W. Gilson, Treasurer ; James 
Cahill, Collector; Geo. Low, Assessor ; W. 11. 
Foot, Marshal ; William Lopstater, Street Com 
missioner ; and A. F. Powers, Sexton. 

A question arose concerning the validity of lhj> 



56 THE HISTORY OK PERtr. 

election. By the Constitution it is provided, that 
at all elections voting shall be by ballot on white 
paper, hi this case ballots were found for Brewster 
for Mayor, printed or written on paper having a 
blue tinge — the ordinary blue tinged writing 
paper. Tc was contended that this was not wdiite 
paper within the meaning of the Constitution. The 
former Mayor refused to surrender the seals and 
books of the City, and Aldermen Coffing and 
Coates abstained from the meetings of the Coun- 
cil. The cpiestion was carried by mandamus to the 
Supreme Court and decided in favor of the validity 
of the election. 

No provision was made for the payment of the 
interest on the Eailroad bonds due on the 1st of 
Ma}^ until the 20th August, when a loan for that 
purpose was authorized. In this, as on former oc- 
casions of paying interest on these bonds, a loss of 
al)out $300 was sustained by the City which was 
made up fi'om the general fund. This arose from 
the depreciation of the interest scrip issued by the 
company, which did not bear interest, and Avhicli 
was not convertable until the completion of tlie 
iload, and from exchange. 

In April of this year, the Cliicago and Hock 



59 

THE ni8T()RY OF PERU. 



Island Kail road was opened to Hock Island, its 
entire lengtli. N^o particular iinprovemeiit in 
business took place in consequence. 

By a census taken on the 1st June, the number 
of inhabitants was found to he 3,036. 

In January, 1855, the new Market House and 
City Hall was completed. On the lOtli February 
$2,600 of eight per cent, bonds were issued to 
pay the balance due the contractors. 



56 



CHAPTER IX. 

Elections in 1855 — City indebtedness — Issue of 
^ $5,000 eiglit per cent bonds — Resignation of 
the Mayor — Establisbnient of the "Peru Senti- 
nel'^ — Elections in lS56--Raih*oad Round House 
burnt — $20,000 bridge bonds authorized — Ap 
propriations for damages for flooded stores^Ex- 
tra Raih'oad dividend — Iloftnian House burnt — 
Chair Factory burnt — Geo. B. ^Yillis — Exten- 
sion of the City limits — Recorders Court — 
Elections in 1857 — J^on-payment of interest 
on City bonds — Financial revulsion — Fitzsim- 
mons & Beebe's Foundry and Machine Shop 
burnt — Elections in 1S58 — Issue of f'j>5,000 ten 
per cent, interest bonds authorized — Rainy 
weather and bad roads — Re\dval of business. 
At an Election held on the 2d April, 1855, Geo. 
W. Gilson was elected Mayor, R. H. Booth Al- 
derman for the First Ward, and A. L. Shepherd 
for the Second Ward. The Council elected 
Henry Jones, Clerk ; W. Johnson, Treasurer ; 



TllM UISToKY OF VVAIV. 59 

J. B. White, Collector; Isaac AbraUain, Assess- 
or; Peter Fought and William Wilde, Street 
Commissioiiers ; G. K. Mckinzie, Marshall; 
Chas. Blanchard, Attorney ; T. E. G. Kansoiu, 
Surveyor; John Iligglns, Health Officer; A. F. 
Powers, Sexton; and Clias. Lonc and A. \j. Bull, 
Fire Wardens. 

On the 12tli April the City indebtedness was 
ascertained to be as follows : 
Bonds issued on account of Railroad $^1:0,000 

" " " Market House, 12,600 

Scrip outstanding, 1,950 



Total City indebtedness, $51,550 

On the 30th May a further issue of $5,000 
eight per cent, bonds was authorized by the 
Council for current expenses, which were issued 
and sold for 4,500. 

On the 25th July, li. A. A\^inston was elected 
Alderman for the Second Ward, in place of 
Shepherd Avhose office became vacant by reason 
of his removal from that Ward. 

On the 8th December Gilson resigned as 
Mayor. 

On the 22nd Decemljer Ransom resiirned as 



do THE 1II8TOKY OF PERU. 

Surveyor, and H. II. Brown was elected in liis 
place. 
Tlie " Peru Sentinel, " a weekly newspaper, was 

establislied by J. L. McCorniick and Guy Hulett 
in August. It was always a Democratic organ, 
and now having passed under the management 
of J. F. Meginness Esq., is lighting valiantly for 
Douglas and against Lecompton. '- 

On the 7th April, 1856, J. L. McCormick ^vas 
elected Mayor, P. M. Kilduii* Alderman for the 
First Ward, and C. L. Iluntoon for the Second 
AVard. The Council elected M. C. Harmon, 
Clerk ; J. B. AYliite, Treasurer ; Chas. Blancli- 
ard. Attorney; Henry Jones, Collector; Geo. O. 
Banks, Assessor ; Peter Fought and J. P. Thomp- 
son, Street Commissioners ; II. H. Brown, Sur- 
veyor; "W. FI. Foot, Marshal. 

In the month of May the liound House, belong- 
ino* to the Chicao:o and Rock Island liailroad 
Company, was destroyed by lire. 

On the 17th June the cpiestion of issuing 
$20,000 bonds on account of subscription towards 
the stock of a Bridge Company, chartered for the 

■•'^ On tlio 1 7th August, this oiflce was destroyed by tire. The 
building — a three-story brick — in which it was situated, was owned 
by J. L. McCormick, Esq., and was the first brick building erected 
in the town. It wa* built in 18S!). 



TIIE IIISTOKY Ol'" I'EKU. 61 

purpose of building a bridge across the river at 
tlie foot of White street, was submitted to a vote 
of the people. It was decided in the affirmative 
by a large majority. The bonds have never l)een 
issued nor the subscrij)tion made — nor the bridge 
built. Among the appropriations for this year 
were §575 to IT. G. W. Cronise, and f^21S 50 to 
Joseph Kelly for damages sustained by the flood- 
ing of their stores with water, caused by defi- 
ciency in the culverts. 

The Railroad Company commenced paying 
semi-annual dividends on their stock on the 1st 
of Xovember, ISott, — first dividend four per 
cent; all after five; and continued doing so until the 
1st IS'ovember, 1856, when an extra dividend of 
twelve and a-half per cent, payable in stock, was 
made. From this the City realized $4,825, a por- 
tion of which was used in paying off two judge- 
ments which had been obtained against the City, 
and upon which the City Hall had been sold, 
amounting together to $1,47-150. The balance 
was used for the payment of outstanding cou- 
pons on the various kinds of bonds, and other 
claims. 

On the 7th January another serious loss by fire 



62 THE UrSTOTlY OV VVAIV. 

took place. The Hoffman House, ovrned by Jolm 
Hotfinan and occupied hy P. T. ^looi-e, was de- 
stroyed. The buikling was thoroughly and .sub- 
stantially built, although of wood, and occupied 
a beautiful site, and was one of the leading insti- 
tutions of the town. The loss to both owner and 
occupant was heavy. 

On the 2oth September, of the same 3'ear, 
an extensive chair, furniture, sash and blind 
factory, erected tlirough the iiulomitable energy 
and perseverance of Geo. B. Willis, was destroy- 
ed by lire. Loss about 820,000. The fate of Mr. 
Willis, Avho is now beyond the reacli of praise or 
censure, calls for a passing notice. He came to 
Peru, poor and blind. By his sagacity and energy 
he so improved his circumstances tluit he suc- 
ceeded in building and putting into operation a 
manufactory which gave employment to about 
fifty mechanics. The manner in which he con- 
ducted this business would have done credit to 
any person in the possession of all of his senses, 
but was very remarkable when done by one who 
suffered under the loss of so important an organ 
as that of sight. But the load was too heavy for 
him to cni'rv. He staii'ii'ered for a time and f{41. 



fllK inSTCiUY OV PERU. 08 

Disappointment, mortilication, anxiety and des- 
dondency did their work. The grave liokU him. 
Wliose hand wa^^ stretched forth to lighten the 
burden under Avhich he hegau t<» reel : AVhose 
voice whispered words of sympathy and hope 
when discouragement and disaster crowded upon 
him ? Whose was the intelligent self interest that 
enquired whether a small amount of aid, in mon- 
ey or credit, would not sustain and foster 
an enterprise which, "m its turn, would in- 
vigorate every interest in the community ? — 
Whose was the practical sagacity that perceived, 
that fifty male operatives, with their families and 
dependants, were of more value in advancing the 
growth and prosperity of the town than the rows 
of stately and costly stores, which have for years 
stood idle and tenantless ? Where were the men 
— generally to be f<»imd on every corner — who 
proclaim that upon manufacturing industry alone 
must Peru depend for advancement? Ah! 
When it Avas perceived that Mr. Willis had under- 
taken an enterprise to which his energies and 
means were inaderpiate, liow hands which, had 
been sti-etched forth to catch the copious streams 
of disbursHKMTt. ^hmk into the fathomless deptlis 



64 THE IlISTOKY OF PERU. 

of pockets ! How importunate and inexorable 
were those cormorants of every petty western 
community, called by courtesy, "Banks," which 
had moused into every nook and cornier for paper 
upon Avhich it was ho23ed would Y)rove a profita- 
ble investment. 

In February, 1857, by act of the Legislature, 
the limits of the City were extended over the 
whole of Section 16 and IT. This made the su- 
perficial area 1462 acres.. -In tlie same month an 
act passed, creating a Recorders Court for the 
Cities of Peru andLa Salle, with jurisdiction over 
the territory of the Townships of Salisbury and 
La Salle — six srpiare miles. Churchill Coffing 
was appointed Judge, and Daniel Evans, Clerk, 
who entered upon the discharge of their duties. — 
One term of the Court was held at La Salle. A 
question arose concerning the constitutionality, 
of this Court which was taken, by an agreed case, to 
the Supreme Court, where it was held that it was an 
Inferior Court ; tliat the l^egislature possessed the 
power only to grant jurisdiction to such Courts 
over the territory of a single City; that by no 
implicaiijn could the Constitution hi co istraed 
■^0 as to grant the power to extend it over territo- 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 65 

ry not embraced witliin city liirnts ; that tlic 
wliole net must be considered togetker ; that the 
powers therein granted coukl not be separated, 
and if one part was found to be con stitutionaly ob- 
jectionable, the whole must fall together ; and 
that therefore the rict was unconstitutional and 
void. 

At an election held in April, 18 57, Jolm L. 
McCormick was reelected Mayor and Y.W. Sehulte 
was elected Alderman for the First Ward. Ko 
election was made in the Second Ward, Erasmus 
Winslow and I. C. Day eacli receiving 63 votes. 
On the 2d May, a new election was called wliich 
resulted in each again receiving 63 votes. Tlie 
question was then decided by lot in favor of Wins- 
low. Tlie Council elected Jno. J.Dowling, Clerk ; 
David Lininger, Assessor; D. O. Sullivan, Col- 
lector; H. G. W. Cronise, Treasurer; W. H. 
Foot, Marshall; William Hackman and Owen 
Judge, Street Commissioners ; G. D. Ladd, At- 
torne}' ; Geo. Seebach and J. T. Milling, Health 
Officers ; William Lambach, Surveyor ; and A. 
F. Powers, Sexton. On the 2Ttli May, Ladd re- 
signed as Attorney, and Thoma^^ Ilalligan was 
elected in his place. 



^Q THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

The Rail Road Company passed the payment of 
their J^ovember di^ddend and the city also passed 
the payment of interest on her bonds. 

During the latter part of this year a fi- 
nancial hnrricane, commencing in the TJni. 
ted States, swept over the world. Money van- 
ished from sight as if by the wand of a magician. 
General health, bonnteons crops, and great activ- 
ity in every branch of industry had prevailed. — 
Suddenly everything was arrested as though some 
Titan held his hand upon a brake lever. Peru 
did not escape the general disaster. Prices of 
produce became so low that farmers declined to 
market it, preferring to allow tlieir creditors to 
wait and suffer the consequences of shattered 
credit. But few failures, however, took place. — 
The Banks did not suspend. IsTobody failed — 
nobody ever does fail in Illinois until the Sheriff 
sells them ont or shuts them np. 

On the 11th October, the Foundry and Machine 
Shop of Fitzsimmons and Beebe was destroyed by 
fire Loss 116,500— insurance $5,500. This estab- 
lishment had given employment to some thirty or 
forty men. Thus another of the industrial es- 
tablishments of Peru went out. It is a gloomy 



THE HISTOKY OF PERU. C)7 

fact, and bj no means promising sign, tliat with 
the exception of the stores of E. Higgins & Co., 
and McMillan & Co., no important estaljlishment, 
destroyed by lire, has been rebnilt. The black- 
ened walls and foundations of tlie Xational Hotel, 
Hoffman House, Lauber's Cabinet Shop, the 
Chair Factory and the Foundry and Machine 
Shop betray the lack of recuperative energies. 

At an election held on the 5th of April, 185S, 
John L. McCormick was again reelected Mayor, 
and iST. Young was elected Alderman for the First 
Ward, James Cahill for the Second Ward, and 
P. M. Kilduif, Police Magistrate. The Coun- 
cil elected John J. Dowling, Clerk ; H. G. W. 
Cronise, Treasurer ; T. P. Ilalligan, Attorney ; 
D. O. Sullivan, Collector ; Henry Jones, Asses- 
sor ; P. W. Milander and Owen Judge, Street 
Commissioners ; W. F. Lambach, Surveyor ; G. 
W. Lininger and Bartlett Denny, Fire Wardens ; 
G. W. Lininger Inspector of weights and meas- 
ures ; A. L. Bull, inspector of lumber and wood ; 
W. H. Foot, Marshal ; John Scott and Michael 
Xoon, Assistant Marshals; and A. F. Powers 
Sexton. 

On the 7th day of June, tlie question of issu- 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 



iiig $5,000 of ten ])er cent, bonds, for tlie purpose 
of paying the interest over due on tlie bonds be- 
fore issued, was submitted to a vote of tlie peo- 
ple and decided affirmatively by 21 majority. 

The Spring of this year was remarkable for 
heavy and protracted rains. The roads from the 
Isjt May to the 1st July were nearly imj^assable, 
and the ground was so saturated as to make culti- 
vation impossible. About the middle of June it 
ceased raining, and crops wliich were thought to 
be ruined came forward with remarkable promise. 
At this present writing (10th July) every indica- 
tion exists of a full average crop. 

The grain and other produce, which had been 
kept back on account of low prices in the fall, 
could not be brought to market in the spring on 
account of the bad condition of the roads. At 
this time, however, the streets are crowded with 
teams, fair prices are i^aid for produce, debts are 
being liquidated, the merchants and mechanics 
are busy and satisfied, and every interest is revi- 



ving. 



ClIAPTEE X. 

Census — Occupations — Scliools, (Jhurclies 6zc. — 
Business Houses — Grain Trade — Ice Trade — 
Coal Field — Peru Coal Shaft — Ad vantages for 
Manufticturing — City Debt — Review of tlie 
Census — Bridge — The Future — Moral and In- 
tellectual view — List of Early Families — Char- 
acter of the Inhabitants — Unenviable Beputa- 
tions. 

We Avill now examine the jDresent condition and 
resources of Peru. 

The following is a table ofacensuKS taken 20th 
August, 1858. 

Whole number of inhabitants, 3,G52 

Under ten years of age, 1,175 

Under twenty-one years and over ten years, 5G1 
Over twenty-one years, 1,010 

Males, ' ' 1,8T(> 

Females, 1,77H 

Born in the United States, 1,81:1 

Born in Germany, 1,118 



THE HISTOKY OF TEEU 



" " Ireland, 




189 


" " England, 




87 


" " Scotland, 




24 


" " France, 




27 


" " Russian Poland, 


27 


'' " Sweden, 




17 


" " British Provinces, 


19 


Negroes, 




3 


Born of foreign pareni 


:s counted as Americans, 


869 


Kuniber of deaths in 


1857, 


48 


OCCrPATIONS. 




Blacksmiths, 30 


Farmers, 


18 


Laborers, 326 


Brakemen, 


8 


Carpenters, 71 


Shoemakers, 


26 


Livery keepers, 4 


Constables, 


2 


Teamsters, 4-1 


Merchants, 


44 


Machinists, 20 


Millers, 


6 


Monlder 1 


Justices of the Peace, 3 


Pattern Makers, 2 


Lawyers, 


7 


Clerks, 35 


Porters, 


5 


Ice Merchants, 5 


Barbers, 


4 


Printers, 9 


Tobacconists, 


2 


Millwrights, 2 


Tinners, 


13 


Masons, 36 


Saloon Keepers, 


41 


Draymen, 5 


Tailors, 


9 



THE 


HISTOEY OF PERU. 


71 


Caulkers, 


4 


Physicians, 


7 


Butchers, 


13 


Lmnber Merchants, 


5 


Grocers, 


11 


General Business, 


15 


Saddlers, 


7 


Civil Engineers, 


2 


Teachers, 


3 


Bakers, 


4 


Gardeners, 


5 


Jewelers, 


3 


Pamters, 


9 


Clergymen, 


4 


Ticket Agent, 


1 


Coopers, 


6 


Brewers, 


11 


Peddlers, 


2 


Cap Maker, 


1 


Conductors, 


5 


Book Keepers, 


4 


Miners, 


32 


Lectui'er, 


1 


Tavern Keepers, 


7 


Wheelwrights, 


13 


Ship Carpenters, 


16 


Cigar Makers, 


6 


Bankers, 


2 


Cabinet Makers, 


, 6 


Brick Makers, 


6 


Carpet Weaver, 


1 


Ferrymen, 


2 


Basket Maker, 


1 


Pilot, 


1 


Gun Smith, 


1 


Musicians, 


3 


Match Makers 


2 


Editors, 


3 


Boatmen, 


8 


Druggists, 


4 


Daguerreian, 


1 


Kope Maker, 


1 


Land Agents, 


3 







There are seven public schools, four of which are 
organized under the Union School system. There 
are six Churches — one Catholic, one Dutch Re- 



72 THB HISTOKY OF PERU. 

formed, one Methodist, one G-erman Methodist, 
one Gongregationalist, and one Episcopal. There 
are one Lodge of Good Templars, one of Odd 
Fellows, and one of Masons. The City possesses 
a commodious Public Hall, erected in a substan- 
tial manner of Milwaukie brick, at an expense 
of over $12,000. It is divided into a Council 
Chamber, a Public Hall for meetings, lectures, 
concerts, &c., a room for market stalls, and a cala- 
boose or jail. The ware-houses, stores, hotels, and 
dwellings of the citizens, for solidity of structure 
and architectm*e, taste and adornment, are, as a 
whole, superior to most places of its size, east or 
west. There are of houses and places of busi- 
ness and industrial occupations as follows : 
703 Dwellings and tenements occupied. 
15 do. and do. unoccupied. 

4 Dry Goods Stores. 

7 Family Groceries and Provision Stores. 

2 Wholesale, '' do. do. (one 

selling $200,000 per year.) 
4 General Merchandise, Stores. 

3 Stove and Tin, do. 
2 Hardw^are, do. 
2 Furniture, dc). 



TiiE IIISTOKY OF 


VEliC. 


1 Leather and Finding, 


do. 


1 Flour arid Feed, 


do. 


4 Drug and Book, 


do. 


2 Tobacco, 


do. 



Y3 



7 Taverns, (one a large and commodioiis Ho- 
tel.) 

1 Gun Shop. 
4: Bakeries. 

3 Harness and Saddle Shops. 

6 Shoe Maker Shops. 
5 Tailor Shops. 

5 Blacksmith and Wagon Maker Shops. 

2 Cooper Shops. 

4 Milliner Shops. 

2 Banks. 

3 Private Land Offices. 

2 Livery Stables. 

40 Lager Beer and Drinking Saloons. 
1 Daguerreian. 

5 Law Offices. 

7 Physicians. 

3 Grain and Merchandis'e Ware Houses, with 

a united capacity of about 200,000 bushels, 
besides room for general merchandise. 
1 Plow Factory, (employing some 40 hands.) 



74 THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

1 Match Factory. 

1 Fanning Mill Factory. 

3 Breweries, 

1 Flouring Mill. 

5 Lnniber Yards. 

1 Boat Yard. 

The central engine house of the Chicago and 
Kock Island Kail Koad is located here. As the 
engines, with their engineers and firemen, are 
changed here, many of the employees are domes- 
ticated. The quantity of grain purchased direct 
from the producers, and shipped — exclusive of 
that purchased by the mill — was 582,641 bushels 
in 1857, against about 900,000 bushels in 1856. 
The falling off is attributable to the reluctance of 
the farmers to market their grain in the fall of 
the former year, as before mentioned. 

A very important branch of business pursued 
here is the ice trade. About 13,000 tons are an- 
nually packed for the southern market, giving em- 
ployment to about three hundred men, during the 
Winter and Spring in packing and shipping, and 
sixty men in Summer and Fall, in building boats 
and other preparations for the next winter's busi- 
ness. Two steamboats are ow^ned and employed 
exclusively in the trade. 



THE HISTOKY OF PEKU. 

75 
For some years, attention has been attracted to 
the Great Central Coal Field of Illinois, the 
north eastern rim of which underlies the cities 
of Peru and La Salle. From the earliest settle- 
ment of the country the outcrops have been re- 
sorted to for fuel. More and more extensive ex- 
plorations and excavations have, from time to 
time, been made, excited by the foresight, sagaci- 
ty and scientific deductions of the pioneer of that 
interest, Dixwell Lathrop, Esq. In 1855, a 
thorough examination was made by J. G. Nor- 
wood, State Geologist, which demonstrated the 
existence of three veins or strata, underlying an 
area of about 500 square miles. These veins vary 
in thickness, from three and a half to seven feet, 
the central being the thickest, but the value of the 
coal increasing with the descent. The existence 
of another strata, still lower and still better, is 
presumed, as the alluvial formation, or coal meaS' 
ures, has not yet been passed by boring. A com- 
parison of the analysis of these coals with those of 
the best Pennsylvania and Ohio bituminous, de- 
monstrated that an open market could be success- 
fully entered in competition. Immediately after- 
wards, operations in mining were commenced on 



76 TJIK HISTORY OF PEKL'. 

a more extensive scale and more scientilic princi- 
ples. 

Several shafts were sunk and powerful and im- 
proved machinery employed. These shafts were 
sunk in and near La Salle, with one exception, 
which was in the westerly part of Peru, imme 
diately on the river bank, and on the track of the 
Chicago and Rock Island Rail Road. The struc- 
tures, excavations, machinery and outfits of the 
company oj)erating this shaft are of the most 
perfect and approved kind. Their facilities for 
raising are equal to three hundred tons per day. 
They are working the lower, or best vein — four 
and a-lialf feet thick — exclusiA^ely, which they 
have reached at probably its greatest dej)ression, 
three hundred and forty-six feet below the surface. 
Analysis and tests, made at many gas works and 
manufactories, are conclusive in establishing the 
fact, that NO coal has yet been eaised, west of 
Ohio and north of the Ohio river, which is 
equal to the coal from this shaft, sou the 
amount of steam it w^ill generate, and for its 
freedom from sulphur and tendency to clink- 
er. What is true of this shaft is true, in a de- 
gree, of the coal from the same vein from the 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 77 

shafts at La Salle, the difference being due no 
doubt to its greater depression. 

The imjDortance of this coal field to the interests 
of Peru and La Salle can scarcely be over estima- 
ted. "When it is recollected that this is the ex- 
treme northern edge of the Illinois coal fields ; 
that the countr}^ all north, to the forrests of north- 
ern Wisconsin, is but sparscely supplied with tim- 
ber, and that growing "small by degrees and 
beautifully less ; " that this country is already in- 
terlaced with Railroads, all haying a connexion 
with the Illinois Central, upon which the coal can 
be " dumped " directly from the mines ; that the 
iron mines of northern Wisconsin are within 
easy and accessable distance ; and that the locality 
itself possesses extraordinary adyantages for man- 
ufacturing; its importance can be but partially 
comprehended. 

One word as to the adyantages for manufactur- 
ing. One of the most considerable ot" these is 
the cheapness, excellency and unlimited suj^ply of 
fuel. To this must be added the acknowledged 
healthiness of the locality and salubrity of cli- 
mate ; and the facilities for drawing supplies and 
distributing manufactures, by riyer, canal and 



78 THE HISTORY OF PEEU. 

rail road, which diverge in every direction, and 
penetrate a country which, for hundreds of miles, 
has a greater capacity for production, and conse- 
quently for sustaining population, than any other 
country of the same extent on the surface of the 
Globe. Laborers, mechanics and artizans can pur- 
chase the same degree of comfort here as in Chi- 
cago or other commercial and crowded centers, 
where of necessity rents and provisions must be 
high, for one third less price. This, it will be per- 
ceived, is a very important element to be taken 
into account. It would seem as if these advan- 
tages, combined with other and important ones 
not enumerated, would soon become so convinc- 
ing, as to make resistance to the establishment of 
manufactories much longer impossible. 

The present debt of the City of Peru is as fol- 
lows : 

Chicago and Eock Island Eail Road bonds, 40,000 
Market House, do. 12,600 

Current expense bonds of 1855, 5,000 

Interest bonds v^oted for in June, 5,000 

Outstanding Scrip (about,) 1,000 

Total, - $63,600 



THE HISTORY OF PERr. 79 

There is enough Tincollected, (or in the officers 
hands) revenue of the year 1857, which is reliable, 
to pay all out standing scrip. The revenue of 
last year, from all sources, was ^8,5S2,3-i. Tlie 
whole amount of taxable property, real and per- 
sonal, as appears, by the assessment roll, was 
$1,752,300. It will be seen that the financial con- 
dition of the city is by no means desperate. When 
the rail road shall pay its dividends regularly, if 
the issue of no more bonds be authorized, and 
prudence and economy are observed in expendi- 
tures, no difliculty will be experienced in meeting 
all engagements, and gradually reducing the 
debt. 

On reviewing the census and other statistics, 
connected with the growth and j^resent and pros- 
pective condition of the city, there will be foimd 
no cause for despondency and discouragement, but 
much for congratulation and hope. It is true that 
no such rapid increase of population has taken 
place as was anticipated, or as has been the case 
in some other western towns. But there has been 
no decrease, even temporary. On the contrary, 
there has been a steady and gradual increase in 
population, business and wealth, from the recom- 



80 THE IIISTOKY OF PEEU. 

mencemcnt of the work of building the canal in 
1843, to the present time. That this increase has 
been no more rapid, may be accounted for, partial- 
ly 1)Y the inilnence which the sudden and nearly 
simultaneous construction of such a net work of 
rail roads as covers Illinois, exerts upon all inte- 
rior towns. There are here no mountain barriers 
to obstruct the construction of a rail road in any 
direction. With the exception of the Central, they 
all cross the State from east to west, connecting 
the Lakes with the Mississippi, and run without 
much reference to the location of existing towns. 
The consequence has been, that nearly all the 
towns upon the river have had their trade tem- 
2:>oraily diverted, to a greater or lesser extent ; 
and " prairie towns " have started up, to compete 
for the trade, at almost every station. These 
have enjoyed an ephemeral advantage, from their 
supposed superior healthiness. That this is a 
mistake, the mortality of Peru, as exhibited by the 
census table, for one year, 1857, — which is a fair 
average of every year except those when the chol- 
era prevailed — abundantly shows. That these 
towns, while they ha^'e in no instance wholly stop- 
ed the increase of those on the river, but only divi- 



THE insTORT or rERF. 81 

clecl tlieir natural accessions, will shortly react up- 
on tlieir older sisters, and, in tlieir turn, contribu- 
ted to tlieii* advancement and prosperity, is inevi- 
table. This is already manifest in the relation 
which Peru now occupies in reference to Amboy, 
Sublette, Mendota, Aiiington, Tonica, Wenona, 
and other towns on the Central, Chicago and 
Burlington, and Hock Island Kail lioads, none 
of which had an existence before the roads were 
projected. That this is, and must continue to be 
the case, is obvious from the fact, that while she 
has all the advantages of rail roads which any of 
them possess, she has in addition the superior 
facilities which the river and canal afford. That 
considerable accessions to her poj^ulation have 
taken place the present season is proved by the 
fact, that only fifteen tenements, little and big, 
are vacant, while over fifty have been erected. — 
The foreign element in the population, it will bo 
perceived, is quite large. This is the case with 
all western towns. If, from the number set down 
in the census tables as "born in the United 
States, " be subtracted the number " born of 
foreign parents and counted as Americans, " there 
will ])e left onlv nine hundred and seventv two 



82 THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

Avlio arc Americans by birth and ancestry. Bnt 
the anialo^amation of interest and feehno- is so 
complete, that society moves harmoniously, and 
the subject of nationality is but little thought of. 
It is believed that the mortality, as exhibited by 
the census table, is imparalleled. It is about one 
and one third per cent, of the population. This 
result has been obtained by enquiry in every 
famil}' and can be relied on as nearly correct. It 
includes infants and adults, and those who have 
died by casualty, as well as by disease. It is 
true that we have not as large a proportion of 
old persons, whose lives are terminating m their na- 
tural order, as in older communities, but it is also 
true that we have a larger proportion of newly 
arrived emigrants, whose health is influenced by 
the fiitigue and exposure of protracted voyages 
and journeys, and by a change of climate and 
habits. By a comparison with other towns and 
cities, and with the entire country, it will be per- 
ceived that the aggregate mortality is remarkably 
low. In Boston, according to the report of the 
Sanitary Commission, for a period of nine years, 
tlie average annual mortality was 2,53 per cent; 
in Xew York, accordino- to the annual report <>f 



TllE IIISTOKY OF PERU. B3 

tlie City Inspector in 1853, it was 4,4 per cent ; 
in Philadelphia, according to the report of the 
Board of Health in 1850, it was 2,29 per cent ; 
in Baltimore, according to the report of the Board 
of Health in 1850, it was 2,7 per cent ; in Charles- 
ton, according to the report of the Board of 
Health in 1850, it was 1,99 per cent ; and in the 
United States in 1850, according to the census 
tables, it was 1,39. So it will be seen, that the 
mortality is less, if the year selected be an aver- 
age one, than it is in either of the above cities, or in 
the entire country. This comparison, it is hon- 
estly believed, presents a fair index to the sanita- 
ry condition of the city. 

Prominent among the objects which challenge 
the early and prompt attention of the citizens of 
Peru, is the subject of a bridge across the river, 
and a road across the bottom to the bluif, upon 
which passing shall at all times be practicable. 
The trade from the north and west which former- 
ly centered here, has been cut off, to a great ex- 
tent, by the Central, and Chicago and Burlington 
roads. The most valuable trade which remains 
is that from the south side of the nver. This is 
sometimes interrupted for months together, as 



b-± THE IIISTOKY OF TEEU. 

]ias been the case tlie present season, leaving 
merchants to look despondingly npon their crowd- 
ed shelves, and mechanics to stand idle in their 
shops. (Most likely they console themselves at 
Kaiser's — but this is not to be printed.) "What 
means shall be adopted for the accomplishment 
of this object, is not the present purpose of the 
writer to enquire. But that some plan should 
be devised forthwith — always excepting running 
into debt — is too apparent to admit of argument. 
There is every reason to hope that the energy, 
perseverance and financial skill of the present 
Mayor, John L. McCormick, Esq., who is the de- 
voted and zealous champion of the work, will tri- 
umph over all difficulties. 

We have now looked at the past and present. 
"What of the future ? Will the magnificent pre- 
tensions of the " Head of I^avigation " dwindle 
into thin air ? "Will the metropolitan airs which 
she assumed and flaunted before the eyes of envi- 
ous rivals degenerate into the abject cringing of 
the vanquished and crest fallen braggart? Will 
the notes of arrogance and defiance which rung 
out upon the tympanum of an admiring world 
subside into tlio moaninscs and mutterinivs of im- 



THE IIISTUKY UF rEliU. 85 

becility and dotage ? Will the liiim of trade and 
industry be hnslied in lier streets, and be super- 
ceded by tbe fluttering of bats and the hootings of 
owls ? Or will she decline into a quiet subur- 
ban appendage of her more fortunate and energet- 
ic rival ? Or will both x^laces languish in prema- 
ture decay, while neighboring towns stride on- 
wards in their march to greatness? Will the 
manufacture of inordinate quantities of gas con- 
tinue to be necessary to remind the world of their 
existence ? These are questions that must be an- 
swered by their own citizens. Certain it is, that if 
they properly appreciate and energetically grasp 
the advantao-es which nature, and a rare combi- 
nation of external circumstances have placed 
within their reach, it will be a long time before 
the antiquarian w^ill have to grope through super- 
incumbent accmnulations for evidence of their 
previous existence. ISTot merely by the exchange 
and transhipment of merchandise ; not merely by 
hotels, lager beer saloons, banking and exchange 
offices, and houses and places of refreshment and 
amusement, although they may be all prefixed 
with the word " city, " can the destiny which is 
tlieir inheritance and birthright be obtained. An 



8(3 TlfE niSTOEY OF VEllU. 

intelligent and productive aggregation of bones, 
sinews and brains must be domesticated npon 
tlie spot, wliose presence and influence will re-act, 
with beneficent results, upon eacli and every lauda- 
ble interest and enterprise. ]^o folly or madness 
can be more extreme, than that of those wdio think 
they can sit down with folded arms, and realize 
dreams of fortunes to be made through enhanc- 
ed corner lot,s. 

"VYehave glanced" at the material and political 
comm^encement, progress and prosjoects of Peru. 
Let us look at the moral and intellectual phases 
of her existance. 

Among her early settlers were many families 
of high culture, refinement, social condition and 
moral standino^. Of these were the families of 
George B. Martin,' II. L. Kinney, S. Lisle Smith, 
D. J. Townsend, ^Ym. 11. Davis, Fletcher Web- 
ster, George W.Holley, Lucius Pearl, II. P. Wood- 
v/orth, W. B. Burnett, Gen. Ransom &c. Sel- 
dom has a new, obscure, western settlement, 
whose inhabitants w^ere thrown together by 
chance, gathered so brilliant specimens of eastern 
intelligence and civilization. There was an un- 
der strata, however, which by no means tends to 



THE IIISTOKY OF PEKlf. ^< 

briglitcn the reminiscence. The idlers, adventur- 
ers'and vagabonds, who follow public works in 
uew countries, and who congregate at the termi- 
nation of navigation, made a rendezvous here. 
Peru, as ought to have been mentioned before, is 
broken by a i^recipitous bluff nearly an hundred 
and fifty feet high. On a narrow strip between 
this and the river is a single street, upon which 
most of the stores, warehouses and shops are situ- 
ated,. in= the rear of which runs the rail road.— 
Most of the dwellings are on the bluif, upon a 
plane inclining towards the river and somewliat 
broken with ravines. Formerly, as now, the street 
under the bluff was generally avoided as a resi- 
dence by the more orderly and quiet citizens. This 
l)ecame the rendezvous of all the congregated 
rowdies and ruffians. In the night it was ahnost 
entirely given up to them. Orgies and revelry 
were always in order. As this part of the town 
was, and has continued to be the most visited by 
strangers, the steamboats landing in front then, 
and the rail road running through the rear now, 
the fame of its doings soon spread throughout all 
the land. The reputation, thus acquired, clung 
to it ; and while no place has had a larger pro- 



S8 THE IIISTOKY OF VERV. 

portion of quiet, orderly, intelligent and reHned 
citizens, no place has had a more unenviable rep- 
utation, unless it be the sister town of La Salle. 
So true is it that the fame of bad [deeds travels 
further and faster than good ones, the writer, 
wdien abroad, on informing a stranger that he was 
from Peru, has observed that stranger involunta- 
rily button up his pockets and move out of the 
neighborhood. What reason exists for this feeling 
may be seen from the fact, that during the whole 
period of the town's history, no riots ; no fights, 
resulting in death or severe bodily injury with 
one exception, and that among a party none of 
which ever lived in the town ; no robbery ; 
and but few cases of burglary or larceny have 
occurred. 'No night police has ever been found 
necessary except at brief and distant periods. — 
Schools and churches have received constant at- 
tention and liberal encouragement. If the order 
and external sanctity of an interior New Eng- 
land town do not prevail, the difference in our 
circumstances, situation and history must be re- 
collected ; and that these are not the tests of mor- 
al ity all over the Avorld. 
Few among the citizens have yet found leisure 



THE HISTORY OF PEEU. 89 

to devote tliemselves to intellectual pursuits, yet 
it is believed that the clergymen, lawyers, doctors, 
merchants &c., have exhibited ability and attain- 
ments equal to those of their class in other local 
ities. 



CHAPTEE XI. 

'Western Towns — Surrounding Country — Scene 
as viewed from tlie Cliamber's House — Salu- 
brity of the Climate — "Water — Soil — Markets 
Roads — Hogs and Cattle — Dairies — Sheep — 
Grass fatted meat — Horses — Choice of Markets 
■ — Scarcity of Timber — Morals and Society — 
Former difficulties of the Emigrant^Present 
Condition. 

What ambitious communities these w^estern 
towns are, to be sure ! How they do chirp when 
they once get their bills through the shell, and 
w^hile the greater portion yet adheres to their 
backs ! "What laughable contortions they make 
in their efforts to crow, strut and clap their wings ! 
Eastern people must understand that there are no 
villages in the West. Every aggregation of a 
half dozen houses, a blacksmith sho]) and tavern 
is a city, and their name is Legion. A meeting 
house and school house — so necessary in the East 
to constitute a village — are not necessary aj^pen- 



THE I1I6T0KY OF VKRV. 9T 

clages of a city in the AYest. Clapboard shells, 
with their gables to the street, embellished with 
square battlements to the ridge, are emblazoned 
with "City Drug Store, " City Saloon, "" City 
Hard Ware Store, " &c. There are " first class 
hotels, " too, between which and the rail road 
depot, gorgeous omnibusses run. When the cars 
stop, what a din the runners set up of '' Metropo- 
litan Hotel, " " St. Mcholas, " " Eeviere House, " 
" St. Charles, " &c. ^Yo, to the unlucky travel- 
er who Mis into their clutches. He will find 
when he comes to settle his bill, that in respect to 
charges, they are determined to do no discredit to 
the'ir sea board prototypes. 

Here and there, one of these clapboards " cities " 
emerge into one of brick and stone. Then three, 
four and five story structures rise like an exhala- 
tion. Enormous turrets, bay windows, lofty ceil- 
ings, gold and vermillion, marble, iron and gew- 
gaws, without end, without order, without taste, 
and without regard to adaptability, business or 
convenience meet the eye on every side. Plate 
glass windows disclose a profusion of costly and 
variasrated wares and merchandise, and enormous 
mirrors entice unsophisticated rustics down end- 



92 THE lIlSTOliY OF rEKU. 

less avenues. Turning your eye upwards along 
tliese aspiring structures, you behold broken win- 
dows and otlier evidences of dilapidation, deno- 
ting the utter uselessness of these lofty creations; 
and your amazement is no way lessened when 
you learn, that from twelve to twenty per cent, 
interest is paid for the money to erect them, se- 
cured by trust deeds upon the building itself, up- 
on " out lots, " and upon broad acres of "wild 
lands. " Then what j)alatial residences are rear- 
ed in the suburbs ! Palaces, cottages, temples, 
pavilions, pagodas and mosques adorn valley and 
hill top. Domes, steeples, sj>ires, turrets and mina- 
rets, gleam in the sun light, peer out of clumps of 
foliage, and struggle upwards at every unexpected 
point. PorticoSjVerandas, observatories pillars, are 
here, there, everywhere, in endless profusion. — 
Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite, 
Gothic and Yankee architecture are everywhere 
attempted, sometimes several of them on the same 
building, and sometimes all jumbled together. — 
Around them are close shaven lawns, graveled 
walks, arbors, climbing vines, summer houses, 
green houses, and flower plats, all imdcr the care 
of one, two, three or more Patricks. Within, fres- 



THE IIISTOEY OF TERU. 93 

COS and gilding, paint and npliolsteiy, marble and 
porcelain, rose wood and maliogony vie, in 
their power to please, with magnificent toil- 
ets and langnid ladies. Carriages, drawn by 
thousand dollar bays, groomed by blue coat- 
ed Hibernians, flash upon the vision like the 
gleam of a meteor. . But alas, for the inevitable 
revulsion ! Down on the " business street, " in 
front of premises where deposits are received and 
ten or fifteen per cent, interest allowed thereon, 
and exchange is sold on all eastern and European 
cities, a motley crowd of anxious and excited 
people — merchants, farmers, mechanics, seam- 
streses, laundresses, draymen, and laborers — are 
assembled What brings thom there? Why, Mess- 
rs. Dash & Splurge have " suspended ' — that's all. 
What weasen-faced, moustachioued abortion is 
that who declares upon '' his honaw, the place is 
almost equal to Isew Yawk. " Why, that's Mr. 
Hound, junior partner in the eminent firm of 
De Laine, Brocade & Co., of E"ew York. He is 
the same individual whose acquaintance we made 
six or eight months ago, when he visited this lo- 
cality and was introduced to us as Mr. Drum- 
mer. What a capital fellow ho was ! How bland ! 



^1 THE IIISTOKY OF PEEU. 

How civil ! How x^olite ! How^ lie amused us 
with stories of the splendor and grandeur of the 
metropolis ! How delightfully he sang ! What 
a superb game of billards he played ! How he 
insisted upon paying for all the Hiedsieck! Who 
would have expected to see him transformed into 
the morose, sinister, vindictive looking personage 
which he now appears ? Who would have ex- 
pected to see his jocund, rounded physiognomy, 
where a bland and perpetual smile sat enthroned, 
distorted into a shape as angular as a problem in 
Euclid ? We find, on enquiry, that his present 
business here is to look after a little matter be- 
tween his house and one of our leading firms wdio 
have also " susj^ended. " He made the acquain- 
tance of this firm on his late visit, took tea at the 
house of one ot them, sang an accompaniment 
to the piano with the daughters, bade them adieu 
with his hand on his heart, took a lunch and a 
^' smash " with the "old man" at the ^-saloon," and 
left with a long order for silks, calicos, &c. Mr. 
De Laine, the head of the house, being a little 
more Cautious, consulted the Commercial Agency 
and found them set down as " reliable — rather 
extravagant in living, indulge a little in horse rac- 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 95 

ing, hut generally attentiveto business, " and con- 
eluded that it was " all right. " Hound finds it 
" aint all right. " Mother-in-law owns the house, 
furniture, horses and carriage ; brothers are pre- 
ferred creditors ; clerks and servants are charged 
with the collection of debts, from the proceeds of 
which they are to retain arrerages due them for 
wages ; and the landlord has sued out a distress, 
and home creditors an attachment, which will sure- 
ly cover every thing, should there be any little flaws 
in the assignment. Hound comes to the conclu- 
sion, that he is taken in — sold — done — and that 
it will not pay even to employ a lawyer in the 
premises. In fact, his settled conviction is that 
there is a collusion between all the residents of 
this portion of the Earth, and that he will not 
trust an V of them asrain — never. 

The writer hopes that he will not be understood 
as attempting to ridicule western towns, as a 
whole, or to throw discredit upon western mer- 
cliants and bankers, as a class. Thriving villages 
are springing up all over the country, and many 
towns and cities are great centers of trade, justly 
depending for their future advancement upon 
tlioir o-reat advantaires for interior communica- 



96 THE HISTOEY OF TEKX^ 

tion, upon the matchless wealth of the soil, and 
upon the enlightened enterprise of their citizens. 
The merchants, bankers and real estate owners, 
are, as a class, shrcAvd and intelligent men, hold- 
ing their credit and characters sacred and inviol 
able, and many families live in elegant luxury, 
fully justified by a permanent and reliable in- 
come. Many, here as elsewhere, have been over- 
taken by the recent monetary calamities, and are 
suffering from causes which ordinary foresight 
could not have foreseen. 

But whatever may be thought of the advanta- 
ges offered by the towns of Peru and La Salle — 
for their destiny is one — for settlement and the 
investment of capital, there can be no doubt about 
the inducements presented to farmers and others 
by the surrounding country. The climate is gen- 
ial and salubrious, the atmosphere invigorating 
and free from miasma, and the scenery delightful 
— alternating from green and billowy swells of 
prairie, varied by cultivation and improvement, 
to wild and romantic dells and ravines. Looking 
eastward up the valley of the Illinois from the 
observatory on the Chamber's House, no lovelier 
scene can be presented. The lair and beautiful 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 97 

city of La Salle, joined to her westerly neighbor 
by continuous streets and structures ; the graceful 
spire of her cathedral rising clear and sharp 
against the sky ; the wooded outline of the Little 
Yermillion, indicating its sinuous course north- 
ward until lost in the blue haze of the distance ; the 
cultivated fields, yellow w^ith waving wheat and 
oats, or dark with luxuriant corn ; the quiet farm 
houses nestling in their bowers of foliage — homes 
of those whose "lines have fallen in pleasant 
places " — the verdant and undulating stretch of 
prairie bounding the \dsion as the waters do upon 
the ocean ; the delicate tracery of the Central 
Kail Road bridge, spanning the broad chasm of 
the Illinois from bluff to bluff, nearly a mile in 
length ; the silvery thread of the river, now 
hid by majestic elms and cotton woods, now di- 
vided by islands, and now gleaming in sun light, 
in the far distance ; the jagged sand stone ram- 
parts of the southern shore, in some places rear- 
ing their perpendicular sides more than an hun- 
dred feet above the waters that lave their base ; the 
rounded and cone like tower of Buffalo Rock, 
rising abrupt and isolated from the valley below 
— all present a panorama of exceeding beauty 



i>b THE HISTORY OT PERU, 

and loveliness. Unlike some other landscap'es, fair 
and pleasing to tlie eye, no deadly or unwhole- 
some exhalations arise from the dank and luxu- 
riant vegetation. The breezes which fan this 
scene come laden with health and exhilaration, 
pure as the icy breath of the Arctic Sea. Xo 
portion of the United States is more favorable to 
health than the counties of La Salle, Bureau and 
Putnam. Ko means are at hand to enable a pos- 
itive statement concerninsc the mortalitv of these 
counties to be made, but observation from almost 
their earliest settlement, and a residence in many 
other different localities, justify the assertion that 
it will fall short of most portions of IN'ew York, 
Pennsylvania or New England. It is true that in 
the early settlement, bilious fevers, of a mild 
form, rarely resulting in death, prevailed to some 
extent, as they have in the early settlement ol all 
parts of the country. These have almost entire- 
ly disappeared, and have not been succeeded by 
the more acute forms of disease, as has been the 
case in other localities. The climate is particu- 
larly favorable to recovery from all complaints of 
a pulmonary character. Consumption — the 
Bcourge of New England— -hardly exists here.— 



THE HISTORY OF PERU 



m 



No doubt but that in a few generations, it will be 
eradicated from families where it is hereditary. 
JSTo nepenthe can reconstruct the consumed, vital, 
human organ ; but it is believed that where no 
considerable inroads have been made, a residence 
here, with proper precautions, will do much to- 
wards staying, if it does not completely baffle the 
destroyer. It is also true that the country did not 
escape the ravages of the cholera. What coun- 
try did? A few elevated, mountainous regions 
may have enjoyed immunity from that slow, nev- 
er wearied, implacable traveller, who comes as 
the wind comes and " bloweth where it listeth, 
and thou hearest the sounds thereof, and canst 
not tell whither it cometh, and where it go- 
eth. " 

Water, pure, clear and cold, is everywhere 
found trickling through the subformation of grav- 
el, at a depth of from twenty to forty feet. It is 
generally slightly impregnated with lime, but 
otherwise holds but little mineral in solution. — 
Many of the early cases of fever and ague were 
no doubt to be attributed to the necessity which 
compelled the settlers to content themselves with 
the surface water, putrid with decaying vegetable 



100 THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

matter, to be found at a short distance below the 
surface in sloughs and other depressions Run- 
ning streams are not infrequent, though not so 
common, as in hilly and mountainous regions. 

The soil. What shall be said of it 'i The Del- 
ta of the ]!^ile, in its original opulence, was not 
more fertile. It consists of a rich, black, vegetable 
mould, from one to six feet in depth, resting upon 
a sub-soil of stiff clay. Its surface has as yet 
been only scratched. When this shall be expen- 
ded, the wealth below can be brought to light by 
the sub-soil plow, an instrument as unfamiliar 
here as the Koo-i-noor. An intelligent farmer in 
La Salle County — an old resident — has been ex- 
perimenting upon a piece of land of a few acres, 
by planting and harvesting a succession of corn 
crops, without fertilizers, for a series of years. — 
As yet he has fonnd no diminution of yield. All 
the cerials, fruits and esculent roots, adapted to the 
climate, produce in perfection and abundance. — 
Winter blight and rust are incident to wheat cul- 
ture every where, here as well as in other sections; 
but insects — the grasshopper, army worm, midge 
and weavel — have never yet made their appear- 
ance. The corn crop never fails. In two seaisons 



THE HISTORY OF VERV. 101 

out of the last twenty, a slight diminution of 
yield occurred — in one year by protracted rains 
preserving the esculency of the plant until the 
season of frost, and in another by drought. — 
With these exceptions, it has grown and ripened 
in all its perfection. Of course, crops are "short" 
with some people always. The Hibernian said 
that he believed that " if the steamboat never 
sailed somebody would be left ;" so if the frost 
never comes, somebody's corn will be caught. So, 
too, the disposition among farmers to complain of 
short crops is chronic, here as elsewhere. If the 
statistics, gathered by means of agricultural fairs 
or otherwise, do not exhibit so large yields per 
acre, as in places where land is dearer, it must be 
recollected that cultivation is as yet conducted 
only in a very rude manner. 'No application to 
the soil of materials whereof it is deficient, for the 
production of certain crops, was ever dreamed 
of. J^Tone of the high cultivation, adopted where 
that practice is a necessity, is ever resorted to. 

1^0 portions of the three counties named are 
more than ten miles distant from some rail road 
station, or river, or canal landing, at all of which 
a cash market is found for every kind of farm 



i02 THE HISTORY OF PEEL'. 

produce, and a supply of all kinds of '' store 
goods " is for sale. Leading to these are roads 
whereon the low places have been turnpiked, and 
the sloughs and streams bridged, and which, if not 
so solid and smooth, in wet weather, as those over 
the flinty or gravelly soil of some portions of the 
eastern States, are infinitely superior to those 
corduro}^ aflkirs, running through the timbered re- 
gions of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. In dr}^ 
weather, no McAdam, no pavement, no Imperial 
causeway is so smooth, so even, so easy, so noise- 
less as the slightly elastic prairie road bed. Talk 
of two-forty on the Avenue ! A natural prairie 
road is the paradise of Jehus. 

Horses, cattle, hogs — those whales of the prai- 
ries — sheep and fowls thrive and are profitable. 
The high price and great average yield of grain 
have, of late years, induced farmers, to a great 
degree, to neglect the dairy. The ruling price 
of cheese, in the towns, for several years pasthas 
been from ten to fifteen cents, and of butter from 
fifteen to twenty-five cents per pound. Think of 
that, you dairymen and dairy women of the Wes- 
tern Keserve, JSTew York and ]S"ew England ! — 
Cows, grazing through the long summer upon 



TUB IIISTOIIT OF PEBU'. lOS 

common prairie ]3asture, and requiring to be fed 
only tlirougli the short winter, and the product of 
their udders bringing those prices at your doors ! 
Wool growing, too, for the same reason has been 
neglected. No country offers greater induce- 
ments to raise sheep, w^ere it not for the gangs of 
worthless dogs which most farmers persist in'keep- 
ing. The carcases were formerly of but little 
value. J^ow the cost of getting them to the 
great eastern markets is so small, that for that pur- 
pose alone their production would be profitable. 
^Yhat delicious lamb, mutton and beef grace our 
market stalls ! How hidden and buried are the 
kidneys beneath the white, thick, oleaginous cov- 
ering ! How the layers of fat and lean alternate 
through rib and sirloin ! How the rich juices fol- 
low the carving knife as it slides, almost of its 
own weight, through the roasted haunch ! Oh, 
you benighted Yegitarians ! Have you no music 
in your souls ? Do no involuntary drops ooze 
from the caverns of your mouths, as you contem- 
plate the gastronomic treasure, and inhale the 
rich fragrance which rises like a halo ? Oh, you 
unfortunate denizens of inland eastern towns, 
who are compelled to essay mastication upon the 



104 THE IIIgTuKT OF PERff. 

blue, stringj, tenacious substance which you call 
butchers meat ! What wonder that the dental 
art flourishes in your vicinity ! IIow would you 
like to luxuriate ujoon these grass-fed fatlings 
of the prairie ? 

The average estimate of a large number of in- 
telligent farmers is that it costs about tliirty-five 
dollars to raise a colt to the ao^e of four years. For 
years past the price of a good work colt, at that 
age, has been one hundred and fifty dollars. 

The choice of markets, enjoyed by agricultur- 
ists here, is of great advantage. It often happens 
that the eastern markets are depressed while the 
southern markets are buoyant, and vice versa. — 
The location upon the navigable waters of a trib- 
utary of the Mississippi, and upon the canal con- 
necting with the Lakes, gives a valuable option 
to farmers. 

One great bug bear of the prairies was former- 
ly the scarcity of timber. The early settlers 
skirted with their farms and homesteads the bor- 
ders of timber, and deemed the central parts of 
the prairie as valueless as an African desert. Ex- 
perience has shown that these are the most valu- 
able lands, and that no serious inconvenience is 



rilE IlISTOKY OF TERU. 105 

felt on account of remoteness from timber. Lum- 
ber from Miclngan, transported by canal or rail 
road, is cheaper for fencing than rails, though the 
timber were at liand. Wire is also used to con- 
siderable extent. The abundance, cheapness, 
contiguity, and excellent quality of the bitumin- 
ous coal, underlying portions of all three of 
these counties, obviate all necessity of wood for 
fuel. 

Society is already established and settled, as in 
older communities. The present race of farmers 
is as intelligent and enterprising, as a class, as 
those of the eastern States. The tone of morals 
and integrity is as high as elsewhere. Schools 
are everywhere sustained and fostered, and are 
no where so remote as to render their advantages 
imavailable. Churches, of all the several Chris- 
tian denominations, are in reasonable proximity. 
The price of land varies from five to fifty dollars 
per acre. 

What a difference in the condition of the emi- 
grant farmer now and twenty years ago ! Then, 
liaving bade good bye to the home and scenes 
of his childhood, having sold a portion and pack- 
ed- a portion of his hoiisehold goods, and having 



106 THE HISTOKY OF PERU. 

exchanged the last sad and faltering salutations 
with kindred and early and life long friends — 
each believing that never more on earth should 
they meet — with wife and children who tare 
themselves reluctantly from each cherished face 
and object, he set his face towards the setting sun. 
A long and tedious journey by land, through pri- 
meval forests ; over gullied and precipitous 
roads and paths ; across bog, and morass, and fen, 
aiid unbridged torrents, and dreary wastes of sand, 
and scarcely less desolate prairie ; with wearied 
and jaded animals, and lagging and loitering gait; 
camping out by night and pacing through its long 
watches, by turns, as sentries ; or by canal boat, 
steamboat, stage and wagon, at length termina- 
ted in a bleak and lonely prairie. Miles across 
an ocean of verdure or a charred and blackened 
waste, as the season was summer or late autumn, 
glistened the roof of a settlers cabin ; or if this 
were hidden by the swells of prairie or the con- 
vexity of the earth, rose a small, faint column of 
smoke against the sky. Away on the furtherest 
verge of vision stretched a blue and indistinct 
thread, like the first glimpse of coastline, as caught 
from the deck of a vessel at sea. This was the tim- 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 107 

ber whicli skirted some distant water course. No 
other object relieved the eye, as it wandered 
around the circle. The loneliness of ocean — the 
wearisome expanse of sea and sky — had here its 
counterpart. The few articles of furniture and 
clothing, of prime necessity, were hastily un- 
packed ; a rude and uncomfortable domicil was 
extemj)orized ; a stable, covered with long grass, 
to shelter a horse and cow, was erected ; and a 
hole was dug in the nearest slough, whence was 
obtained a limited supply of dirty and impure 
w^ater. These were the comforts and accessories 
which welcomed the earlv emi£i:rant. JS^o run- 
ning brooks, no trees, no shade, no merry chil- 
dren frolicking to school, no music of Church 
bells, no decorous and well dressed people, wend- 
ing their way to the edifice, where the organ's di- 
apason and the solemn chant, in memory, rose 
with their stately swell, no cheerful faces of 
neighbors and friends, no kind voices to con- 
gratulate in good fortune and console in bad, sur- 
rounded and cheered the saddened pilgrims. 
Soon, fatigue, exposure, privations, bad water, un- 
wholesome diet, repining and discontent brought 
on the inevitable " ager. " Doctors, calomel, qui- 



108 tliTE HISTUKY OF PERt. 

iiihe, yellow and jaundiced faces, emaciated forms, 
broken spirits and general misery followed. 

Twenty years ! Presto, wliat a change ! Rip 
Van "Winkle lias awoke ! "Where stood the lone- 
ly hovel, now stands the commodious and com- 
fortable farm house. Orchards, barns, granaries, 
flowers, luxuriant foliage, pure water, broad fields 
of grain and grass, lowing herds, good roads, 
schools, churches, neighbors, friends, cheerful and 
smiling faces, happiness and contentment have 
replaced the former surroundings. The j)oor and 
dejected emigrant is now the independent pos- 
sessor of a domain a prince might envy. The 
disconsolate and almost broken hearted mother 
who, during long and weary days and nights, in 
solitude and loneliness, watched and nursed her 
puny and sickly brood, is now the happy, come- 
ly and dignified matron, whose children and 
grand-children are clustered around her. The 
friends and kindred with whom she parted so 
sorrowfully twenty years ago — those of them who 
are yet spared to earth — are again her neighbors. 
With them she frequently exchanges visits — from 
fifty to sixty hours only, at most, being necessar 
y to bring them together. If Old Rip had actu- 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 109 

ally gone to sleep, twenty years ago upon the prai- 
ries, ujDon awaking now, it is opined, his amaze- 
ment would far exceed that inspired by the neigh- 
borhood of the Catskills. Who will now com- 
plain of the hardships incident to a removal from 
the most favored regions to a country, already so 
far advanced in all that contributes to the comfort, 
enjoyment and embellishment of life ? 



On the 6th August the world was astounded 
by the announcement that the Atlantic Cable was 
successfully laid. Previous failures had left no 
hope in the minds of any, even the most sanguine, 
of such a res nit. The short, laconic, simj)le dis- 
patch of Mr. Field — the world renowned projec- 
tor and master spirit of the work — flew with light- 
ning wings throughout America and fell upon 
minds, where skepticism for a long time repelled 
and resisted conviction. Slowly the possibility of 
its truth gained the ascendency over disbelief and 
doubt, till at length, the amazing reality of the 



110 THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

achievement began to be compreliended. The 
dispatch to his family of Capt. Hndson, of the 
United States' Steam Frigate Niagara, from 
which the cable was laid, was telegraphed 
over the conntry and dispelled all doubt. That dis- 
patch, beautiful in its epigrammatic terseness, and 
sublime in its devout thankfulness and gratitude, 
will be carried down the coming centuries, as long 
as the remembrance of the great feat shall sur- 
vive. '' God has been with us ! The telegraph 
cable is laid, without accident, and to Him be all 
the Glory. We are all well. " In its first efforts 
at comprehension, the mind utterly fails to grasp 
and measure the terrible sublimity of Niagara, 
the awfid majesty of Mont Blanc, or the colos- 
sal proportions of a vast cathedral, which 
" Def}^ at first our nature's littleness. 
Till, growing with their growth, we thus dilate 
Our spirits to the size of that they contemplate." 
So with the Atlantic Telegraph. The mind is 
bewildered and bafiied when it undertakes to 
contemplate either the consequences which are 
to flow from it, or the simple extent of the cable, 
and the mysterious regions which it traverses. 
Far down along the groined and vaulted cav- 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. ill 

enis of the Oeean's bed ; along the slimy path- 
way, strewed with the wrecks of sunken argosies, 
their treasures darkling in oozy dungeons, and 
the forms of their once living, breathing, human 
freight, stark and ghastly in eternal sleep ; along 
rayless and gloomy depths, where silence and 
solitude, profound and supreme, unending and 
eternal, encompass, pervade and encircle as with 
an atmosphere ; along submarine alpine peaks, 
vainly struggling upwards towards the regions of 
light and warmth; beneath where the storm Fiend 
rides on the billow's crest, where the tempest 
howls the hoarse refrain of its anthem, and where 
sweeps the ice berg, congealed, perhaps, when 
the morning stars first sang together ; stretches a 
metallic thread no bigger than your finger, uni- 
ting lands two thousand miles asunder in bonds 
of harmony and brotherly love ; along which 
glides a subtle fluid, conveying thought and in- 
telligence — those mysterious emanations of the 
human brain — and writes them in distant lands 
as rapidly as they are engendered. A thought 
is born, and instantly it is stamped upon a human 
mind two thousand miles away, across the path- 
less waste of ocean ! A human heart beats, and 



112 THE HISTORY OF TERU. 

its throb is felt before the blood returns for anoth- 
er circiiit. A word is spoken, and it is re-uttered 
before the sound has died upon the ear of the 
first speaker ! A question is asked, and its an- 
swer comes back as the shuttle returns with the 
w^oof ! A boon is craved, and the heart leaps 
in exultation as it is granted, or sinks in despair 
as it is denied, almost as soon as the lips have 
closed upon its utterance! Stupendous achieve- 
ment ! Is there no limit to the conquests 
of man over the forces of nature, tangible 
or invisible ? Shall he yet find means, by 
the clerity of his messengers and the invinci- 
bility of his power, to overtake and reclaim 
the lost and wandering Pleiad, and restore the 
fugitive to its celestial comjDanions ? Shall he 
go on, step by step, ' into the shadowy realms of 
the Impossible, until he shall claim aflinity with 
Supreme Intelligence? Shall he advance, in 
the order of progressive creation, untill he shall 
be developed in a being more nearly allied to 
Ultimate Destiny ? Shall the curtains which con- 
ceal the arcana of hidden knowledge be gradual- 
ly drawn aside, and his eye rest, with unflinching 
gaze, upon the secrets of the Infinite ? Thoughts 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 113 

like these crowd upon the brain, stupiiied and 
amazed by the announcement of an event, more 
wonderful, as a triumph over Natm'e's obstacles, 
than was ever proclaimed since the world began . 



CHAPTER XII. 

Early Settlers in Yicinitj — Early French Settle- 
ments — Bufialo Rock — Chronological glance at 
Illinois — Black Hawk War — Indian Creek 
Massacre — Cork War — Murder of Story — John 
Myers — ISTinawa Titles — Col. Kinney — A. H. 
Miller— Starved Rock — Deer Park — Sulphur 
Springs. 

The writer indulges in the hope that he will be 
pardoned for the follo'sving digression, which, 
though forming no part of the " History of Pe- 
ru, " is so connected with it as to induce the be- 
lief that it will be not altogether uninteresting to 
its citizens, or to the general reader into whose 
hands this little book may fall. The present 
residents, as they turn their eyes over the beau- 
tiful State they inhabit, and behold it dotted with 
towns, cities, and cultivated farms, where the 
presence of its original inhabitants is as rare as 
in Europe, where churches, schools and libraries 



THE HISTORY OF PERF. 115 

are Btrewn broadcast over the land, where the 
arts, embellishments and accessories of high civ- 
ilization are everywhere present and pervading, 
and where rail road and telegraph lines intersect 
in every direction, may find it pleasant, for a few 
moments, to drop the present and turn their 
thoughts to the remote past, and briefly follow np 
the chain of events, in chronological order, to the 
period which immediately preceded the settle- 
ment of the town. A brief notice of events 
which occurred in the neighborhood, of the sur- 
rounding localities, and of the individuals who 
inhabited them, whose characters were marked 
with strong and original x^ecularities, may also 
not be uninteresting. 

Looking backwards three years before the com- 
mencement of this History — twenty-five years 
ago — we behold the site of Peru occupied as an 
Indian village. The very spot where is now the 
residence of tlie writer is said to have been an In- 
dian bnrying gronnd. IS'orthward, the nearest 
residence of the white man was at Dixon's Ferry, 
and westward, at Princeton, excepting, perhaps, 
the Hoskins family near the Bureau. South 
of the river were some settlements. Along the 



116 TUE UI STORY OF PERU. 

timber towards Hennepin lived George Isli and 
Henry Belong ; at Cedar Point, Nathaniel Rich- 
ie ; on the bluff, near the old Fort, John Myers ; 
at Bailey's Point, Lewis Bailey, AYilliam Seeley, 
William Groom, Joel Alvord, Asa Holdridge, 
William Haws, and perhaps a few others ; at or 
near Hennepin, the Willises, Stwarts, Thompsons, 
Durleys, Donlevys, Shepperds, Zenors and Dents; 
at Utica, Simon Crosiar ; at Ottawa, the Walk- 
ers, Browns, Covills, &c.; at Dayton, John Green 
and William L. Dunnavan ; at Indian Creek, the 
Halls, Davises and Petegrus ; and further east- 
ward, the Hollenbecks and Holdermans. At 
Bloominficton, seventy miles distant, was the near- 
est mill, and thither all the people went to get their 
corn and wheat ground, nntil Green bnilt one at 
Dayton, in 1833 or 1831. As late as 1837, as re- 
lated by Mrs. Lock wood who then lived with her 
father, Isaac Manville, at Manville Hollow, in Ce- 
dar Creek bottom, two miles south of Pern, when 
a new mill was erected and it was announced that 
bolted Hour could be obtained on a certain day, 
the people flocked around it in crowds ; and so 
eager were they to enjoy that luxury, that they 
employed Mr. Manville' s family to bake cakes for 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 117 

tliem, keeping tliem tlius engaged nearly the 
whole night, and standing around the kitchen fire 
— it is not to be supposed that the other apart- 
ments were very spacious or numerous — with 
watering months and excited palates, ready to 
appropriate the delicious pasty, as it came smok- 
ing from the pans. Mrs. Lockwood says she 
was nearly exhausted, and thought the people 
never would get enough. The frame of this mill 
was afterwards removed to Peru where it was set 
up, and is now occupied by Capt. Lewis Goodell 
as a livery stable, We will now turn our atten- 
tion nearly two centuries backwards. 

The word, Illinois, is a French corruption of 
Leno. The Indians told the early French set- 
tlers tliat they were Leno-Lenapes— we are men — 
meaning, we are brave or masculine men, in con- 
tradistinction to cowardly or effeminate men. 
To an imperfect pronunciation of the first word, 
the French added the termination peculiar to their 
own lano;uao;e — hence Lenois, and ultimatelv, by 
a further corruption, Illinois. 

It has been often remarked that the topography 
and climate of Illinois bear a strong analogy to 
those of some portions of France. In its prime- 



IIS THE HISTORY OF PERr. 

val condition, there was, in its landscape and at- 
mosphere, the spirit of gay and joyous life, and 
of soft and Inxurions repose which distinguish 
the Gallic Empire. The broad plains were free 
from the enervating influence of the Tropics, on 
the one hand, or the stern and rugged landscape 
features which nurse the restless IN^orseman. on 
the other. These may have been among the 
reasons which tempted the Frenchman, after 
their existance had been made known by the ex- 
plorations of his countrymen, to take up his abode 
along the streams and groves which diversify 
them. At any rate, French settlements were 
made immediately in the footsteps of Marquette, 
La Salle, La Hontag and other explorers, who 
carried the Holy Cross of the Church and the 
Fleurs le Lis of France into these wilds, as early 
as the reign of the Grande Monarque, Louis XIY. 
in the latter part of the seventeenth century. — 
Settlements were made at Peoria, Kaskaskia and 
Cohokia, to which were transferred the arts, cus- 
toms, manners, faith and costumes of France, at 
the period, and where they flourished and were 
conserved, ^vitli very little innovation, until the 
approach of the American Goth — the rude and 



THE HISTOliY OF PERU. 



119 



semi barbaric pioneer. Little jealousy and few 
fends appear to liave existed between these intru- 
ders and tlie tawny children of the forest and 
prairie, by whom they were surrounded, and up- 
on whose hunting grounds they were trespassing. 
The imposing ceremonies of the Catholic faith, 
and the simple, frank and conciliatory manners of 
the strangers charmed the senses and soothed the 
passions of these children of nature. The French 
rule in America was, in the main, marked by the 
absence of those terrible and prolonged conflicts 
which almost always accompanied Anglo Saxon 
settlement, in which the amenities of civilized, or 
even barbaric warfare, were entirely ignored, and 
each party strove to out do the other in acts of 
revolting atrocity. The stern, cold hauteur, the 
rude, coarse insolence, and the grasping, insatia- 
ble cupidity of the latter inevitably aroused every 
demon in the Indian breast. The English colo- 
nists knew no arts of Indian concihation. Their 
tactics were limited to fire water in advance, and 
the sword in reserve to avenge the acts of 
madness excited thereby. The race has not de- 
generated at all, in these respects, since the 
maui-auding Saxon scourged the Baltic shores of 



120 THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

Briton. In support of tins, witness the efforts of 
England to force an interdicted and demoralizing 
commerce upon tlie passive Chinese; witness 
her success in saddling the spawn of her aristo- 
cracy upon the necks of the sujugated Hindoo 
and Sepoy, compelling the worshippers of both 
Vishnu, and Mahomet to bow before crosiar and 
mitre ; witness the long and cruel oppression of 
her Celtic neighbors; witness how we, shoots 
from the same scion, have carried the bible in our 
hand and the whisky bottle in the other, while in 
the rear came the rifle of the backwoodsman to 
enforce all arguments with the untutored savages; 
witness how volunteers have rallied around the 
stars and stripes, and pushed the original posses- 
sors of the soil backwards, ever backwards, until 
a new wave conies rolling from the Pacific coast 
upon his rear ; witness the cruel and inglorious 
wars — if by that name they may be dignified — in 
Florida and Oregon, excited by mercenary and 
unscrupulous jobbers for the sake of a chance of 
plunder from the National treasury ; witness the 
bullying of and final conflict with the mongrel 
races of poor, decrepit, imbecile Mexico, where- 
by the auriferous valleys of California and the ster- 



THE HISTORY OF tERIJ. 121 

ile wastes of JSTew Mexico were wrested from her 
nerveless grasp ; witness the fillibustering forays 
in Central America ; and witness the midisguis- 
ed lusting after the Gem of the Antilles, und 
the nnblushing announcement made at Ostend, 
by dignified statesmen, claiming, in the nineteenth 
century, to be Christians, and representing, not 
cannibal savages or outlawed pirates, but a people 
who profess to acknowledge the divine injunc- 
tion, " do unto others as you would that they 
should do unto you, " and to believe that the 
command, " thou shalt not steal, " is as imperi- 
tive now as it was in the days of the great Jew- 
ish law giver. 

But to return to the Acadian settlements of the 
French in Illinois. The manners and customs 
of the seventeenth century, as before mentioned, 
were cherished and conserved by these communi- 
ties, isolated as they were in the heart of a wil- 
derness continent, until the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century. Passing from French to Eng- 
lish rule by the treaty of 1763, they finally came 
under the jurisciction of the American Confeder- 
ation by the treaty of 1783. After the treaty of 
Ghent in 1814: the restless American pioneer be- 



122 THE HISTORY OF TEKU. 

p-aii to make eiicroaclimeiits. The contrast be- 
tween these two representatives of then- respec- 
tive races, thus meeting face to face in the A\dlder- 
ness, was even more marked and decided than 
between the same races, separated by the English 
ChanneL The Frenchman represented a by-gone 
age, softened and subdued by the influences of 
more than a century's sojourn, in aggregated 
communities, among the quiet, sylvan glades of 
le belle terre. The American, originally imbued 
with the heartless and licentious voluptuousness of 
the Cavaliers of the times of Charles II. or the 
morose, ascetic manners of the Commonwealth, 
was in either case, transformed and remoulded, 
but with many of his original characteristics yet 
clinging to him, by more than a century's resi- 
dence upon a wilderness frontier, where " no pent 
up Utica confined his powers, " where the most 
unbounded freedom of thought and action were 
enjoyed, where the wants of nature and the re- 
quirements of taste were gratified in the rudest^ 
simplest and most primeval manner, and where, 
surrounded by the stern and gloomy grandeur of 
forest life, continual conflict with savages and wild 
beasts had produced characteristics which, trans- 



THE IIISTUKY OF PERU. 1:^3 

mitted irom one generation to another, had cul- 
minated in a character original, unique and in- 
teresting. The salient points which distinguish- 
ed him were unhesitating self reliance ; reckless 
and chivalrous daring ; imperious and resistless 
w411 ; cool and impurturable self possession ; spas- 
modic and startling energy, contrasted with in- 
termittent, if not habitual indolence ; strong, mas- 
culine sense, undiluted with any poetry, senti- 
ment or superstition ; scorning wilds and strategy, 
but always prepared to circumvent and bailie 
them ; hospitable to friend or stranger, and ever 
ready to share his wolf or bear skin, his hog and 
hominy, his tobacco and whisky with all comers; 
to his enemies bold and defiant, but generous and 
forgiving ; to his friends faithful and true, deem- 
ing desertion of their fortunes, in trouble or dan- 
ger, the most aggravated of delinquences ; pos- 
sessed of physical powers of endurance which 
mocked privation and fatigue ; eye, nerve and 
brain steady and true in all emergencies; migra- 
tory in his habits as a Bedouin Arab ; ready, at 
all times, to drink or fight, run or wrestle ; unlet- 
tered and untutored as the savage who had been 
his companion or his foe ; and uncouth and re- 



124 THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

pulsive in action, manners and habits as the bear 
with which he had coped in a hand to paw and 
knife to fangs conflict. 

Thus were the offshoots of the two greatest and 
most cultivated and refined of modern nations, 
vis-a-vis, in the heart of the American continent. 
Soon the song of the voyageur, 
" Such as at home, in the olden time, his fathers 

before him- 
Sang in their l^orman orchards and bright Bur- 

gundian vineyards, " 
as he floated with the stream, or propelled his 
batteaux against the current, with pole, and line, 
and oar, and sail, was hushed forever. Soon the 
panting of the steamer awoke the long silent 
echos of the bluff's and startled the aquatic fowl 
from lagoon and bayou. Soon the swelling tide 
of a more advanced civilization rolled westward 
over the prairies, and the '' common " of the rus- 
tic village, upon whose verdant sward and be- 
neath w^hose branching elms, enamoured swains 
and blushing maidens, 
" Wearing their i^orman caps, and their kirtles 

of blue, and the ear rings 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 125 

Brought in the olden tnne from France, and 

since, as an heir loom, 
Handed down from mother to child, through long 

generations, " 
had been wont to " trip the light fantastic toe " 
to rude and simple music, was illumined with 
the camp tires and whitened with the wagon 
covers of the Saxon emigrant. Soon the alloted 
arpents which, in the exercise of " sqnatter sov- 
reignty, " had been appropriated by each family 
as a home lot, were surveyed, divided, staked 
and sold, and an embryo city was rising theron. 
Soon the quaint and moss covered church, where 
Yesper, Matin and Mass had erst been said, 
chanted and smig, gave place to the " meeting 
house " of another creed and faith. 

The early French explorers established a post 
at Buifalo Rock which, it is believed, was the 
first attempt at settlement by Europeans, in 
the valley of the Mississippi. This presumption 
is supported by the following faets. De Soto, 
after his two years wandering among the ever- 
glades of Florida and the swamps and mount- 
ains of what is now Georgia, Alabama and 
Mississippi, arrived on the bank of the " Great 



126 TJIK HISTORY f)F PERtJ. 

river" in 1541, "but founded no settlement, left 
no traces, and produced no eifects, milees to ex- 
cite the hostility of the red against the white 
man. " One hundred and thirty two years later 
— 1673 — Marquette passed up the Fox of Wiscon- 
sin, across the portage, and down the Wisconsin 
to the Mississippi, and returned by way of the Ill- 
inois. But he, too, according to Joliet, who was 
his comjianion, "founded no settlement, and 
left no traces. " These two expeditions contained 
the only Europeans that ever set foot in the Great 
Yalley until La Salle, five years later, passed 
down the Illinois. His route was up the St. Jo- 
seph in Michigan, across the portage by the Kan- 
kakee, and down that stream to the Illinois, upon 
the banks of which he made his first halt and 
built Rock Fort, where he established a Mission 
and settlement, but which was afterwards aban- 
doned, the inhabitants taking themselves to Fort 
Crevecour. That Buftalo Eock was the site of 
Rock Fort is probable from the name, as well as 
from its superior advantages for such an estab- 
lishment over any other place in tlie valley, from 
the confluence of the Kankakee to Peoria. This 
supposition is sustained by Perkins, Sparks and 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 12^" 

Bancroft. A year or two ago, a brass keetle was 
found in this locality, imbeclc ed in a strata of coal 
which runs through this singular eminence. It 
was reported to have been overlaid by a regular 
seriated, unbroken coal formation ; but as this 
statement is opposed to received geological theo- 
ries, it is reasonable to suppose that it was depos- 
ited by design or accident, in an excavation made 
by these settlers. 

On the 4tli of July, 1778, two years after the 
declaration of Independence, Col. Clark, between 
whom and Boone the honor of founding Ken- 
tucky is divided, with a small band of frontier sol- 
diers, surprised Kaskaskia, then garrisoned by the 
British, and shortly afterwards made himself 
master of Cohohia, without bloodshed. He first 
brought to the inhabitants intelligence of the al- 
liance between the Americans and their former 
liege, the King of the French, which was receiv- 
ed with rapturous enthusiasm, so galling and un- 
welcome had been the British yoke. Les long 
Conteaux, as the Kentuckians were called, and 
les Bostonias, as the Yankees were called were 
thenceforth welcome. 

The attachment which the Indians always 



128 THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

manifested towards their great Father of France, 
in oppposition to the British rule, was quickly 
transferred to the Americans. In October, the 
House of Burgesses of Virginia erected the country- 
north of the Ohio into the county of Illinois, over- 
which they placed John Todd, of Kentucky, Gover 
nor. Two companies, raised in the French set- 
tlements, accompanied Clark in his famous ex- 
pedition against Yincennes. In 1783, the treaty 
of peace was concluded, by which the western 
boundary of the enfranchised Colonies was de- 
clared to be the Mississippi. In 1784, the North 
West Territory w^as ceeded by Yirginia to the 
Confederation Congress. In 1787,it was organized 
by Congress, but no government was established 
in Illinois until 1790. This consisted of a Governor 
three Judges and a Council, who combined exec- 
utive, judicial and legislative authority. In this 
year, the county of St. Clair was organized. — 
From 1783, when the country passed from under 
British rule, to 1790 — a period of seven years — no 
government of any kind existed in Illinois. In 
1809, lUinois, then including what is now Wiscon- 
sin was organized as a first class Territorial Govern- 
ment, the people electing a House of Representa- 



TUB IIISTOKT OF PERU. 121) 

tives, and the President and Senate appointing 
tlie Governor and Conncil. JS^inian Edwards 
was the first Governor and l^athaniel Pope, both 
of Kentucky, the first Secretar}^ In 1812, war 
was declared between the United States and 
England. Soon followed the surrender of De- 
troit, by Hull, and the Chicago massacre. At this 
time no settlement existed in Illinois, north of 
Alton, except the small French settlement of 
Peoria. An expedition, in which the present 
Buchanan candidate for Superintendent of public 
instruction, John Reynolds, the " Old Ranger, " 
participated, attacked and destroyed an Indian 
village on the bluff, at the head of Peoria Lake. 
On the 24:th of Dec. 1814, the treaty of Ghent was 
signed. In July, 1815, a treaty was made at 
Portage des Sioux, a short distance above the 
mouth of the Missouri, between the American 
Commissioners, - consisting of Gov. Clark of 
Missouri, Gov. Edwards of Illinois, and Au- 
guste Chouteau of St. Louis, and the various 
Indian tribes of the N"orth West, except the 
Sacks and Foxes, under Keokuk and Black 
Hawk, who refused to come to the treaty 
ground. Two years afterwards, at St. Louis, a 



130 THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

treaty was made with these tribes, an alledged 
violation of which led to the Black Hawk war in 
1831 and '32. From this time to 1820, emigration 
ponred into Illinois. It was almost entirely from 
the Southern States, and stopped south of the 
Sangamon. The population of Illinois was in 
1790, about 2000 ; in ISOO, about 3000 ; in 1810, 
12,281: ; in 1820, 45,000 ; in 1830, 157,117 ; in 
1840, 478,929; in 1850, 853,317; and in 1855, 
1,300,000. 

The first Legislature convened at Kaskaskia in 
1812. ISTot a lawyer or attorney is found on the 
roll of names. Pierre Menard, of the French 
settlements at Peoria, presided in the Council. — 
The Legislature of 1817 — '18 incorporated the 
^Illinois Bank of Shawneetown,' the " Bank of 
Cairo " and the " Bank of Edwardsville. " — 
They all became depositories of United States 
money. The latter failed soon afterwards, by 
which the Government lost $54,000. The two 
former failed, but were galvanized into life during 
the Internal Improvement mania of 1835 — '36, 
and by their subsequent failure contributed to the 
distress of the people in 1841 and 1842. In 1818 
Illinois became a State. Her constitution was not 



THE IIISTOKY OF PERU. 131 

submitted to a vote of tlie people. Sliadrick Bond, 
of Kaskaskia, was the first Governor and Pierre 
Menard first Lieutenant Governor. Gov. Bond, 
at the first session of the State Legislature, re- 
commended the construction ofthe canal. In 18- 
20 — '21 the " State Bank " was incorporated. — 
The faith of the State was pledged for its issues. 
It failed and the State made up a deficiency of 
one hundred thousand dollars which she bor- 
rowed of or through a gentleman named Wig- 
gins. This was the famous Wiggins loan and 
the foundation of the State debt. 

The suggestion of the canal was made as early 
as 1814, in Xiles Register. The extract is as fol- 
lows : 

'^ By the Illinois, it is probable that J^ulfalo, in 
New York, may be united ^dth Xew Orleans by 
inland naviga ion, through lakes Erie, Huron and 
Michigan, and the Illinois, and down that river 
to the Mississippi. What a route ! How stu- 
pendous the idea ! How dwindles the impor- 
tance of the artificial canals of Europe!" Many 
Acts were passed for forwarding this work — one 
in 1824, one in 1825, one in 1827, one in 1829, 
but the law, under which the work ^vas actually 



132 THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

commenced, was not passed mitil 1835. 

In 1824:, the Sangamon river was the northern 
boundary of settlements. North of the Illinois, 
the country was occupied by the Sacks and Fox- 
es. As before mentioned, these tribes were not 
represented at the treaty of Portage des Sioux, but 
afterwards entered into a treaty at St. Louis. — 
Another treaty was made with them at Itock Is- 
land in 1822, another at Washington in 1821:, 
another at Prairie du Chien in 1825, and another 
in 1830, by all of which they agreed to move 
across the Mississippi. Black Hawk, a brave but 
not a chief, refused to be bound by these treaties, 
and in 1831, commenced a series of depredations 
and murders on the scattering settlements on 
Kock River, but on the ajDpearance of the troops 
retreated across the Mississippi. In 1832, he re- 
crossed the river with most of the warriors of the 
tribes, and defeated Maj. Stillman with 175 men 
at a place about 20 miles above Dixon's Ferry. — 
Soon 3000 militia were rendezvoused at Fort Sci- 
ence, which stood near where the river sweeps 
northward from the foot of the bluffs above Peru. 
These were joined by a detachment from Fort 
Armstrong, on Rock Island, when the whole pro- 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 133 

ceeded imcler the command of Gen. Atkinson, on 
the trail of the Savao^es. Gen. Scott, with six 
hundred mounted men and nine companies of 
artillery, was ordered from the seaboard, but be- 
fore his arrival the western troops had put a ter- 
mination to the war. These moved northward, 
and by a series of actions — one by a detachment 
under the command of Col. John Dement be- 
tween Dixon and Galena, one by Gen. Henry 
near the Blue Mounds in Wisconsin, and one near 
the mouth of the Wisconsin — dispersed the sava- 
ges and put an end to Blackhawk's power. Keo- 
kuk, the regular chief of the Sacks, had endeav- 
ored to dissuade them from the war, but the coun- 
cils of Black Hawk, his rival, prevailed. The few 
settlers in La Salle county at this time — ■supposed 
to be about one hundred in number — suffered 
much from the atrocity of the Indians. After 
the rout of Stillman, the latter separated into small 
squads for the purpose of murder, pillage and the 
destruction of property. A party made an incur- 
sion upon Indian Creek, a few miles north of Ot- 
tawa, where they killed fifteen of the families of 
Hall, Davis and Petegru, who were all living in 
one house. The attack was made in the dav time 



131 THE HISTOKT OF PERL^. 

bj about sixty Indians, who watched the men 
leave the house to go to their work npon a mill 
dam close by, when they rushed froin their co- 
verts, one portion firing upon the men, while the 
other entered the house and slaughtered all the 
women and children, with the exception of two 
daughters of Mr. Hall. The men, five in num- 
ber, had time to return the fire of the enemy sev- 
eral times, with probable effect, before they fell. 
Two of them threw themselves into the creek, 
but, on reaching the further bank, they were shot. 
Willian Davis and John W. Hall, sons of the 
elder Davis and Hall who were killed, swam 
down the stream, and baffled the search of their 
pursuers. Mr. Hall is now living in the vicinity* 
of Peru. John Green, at Dayton, William L. 
DLmnavan, the Hollenbecks, Holdermans, and 
all tlie other settlers in the region of Fox Hiver, 
were more or less sufterers, and all had to seek 
refuge in the fort at Ottawa. One man was kill- 
ed on the Bureau, six or eight miles from Prince- 
ton. Some of the present citizens of La Salle 
county, remember with gratitude the kindly ser- 
vices of Shabanna, a friendly Indian, at present 
living at Shabanna's Grove, to whose triendly 



THE I1I8T0KT OF PERU. 135 

warnings and active interference they owe their 
own Hves and those of their families. 

The two Miss Halls — Rachael about seventeen 
and Silvia about fourteen years of age — were car- 
ried captive to the Blue Mounds thence to the 
Desmoine, where they were purchased by the 
Winebagoes for three thousand dollars in trin- 
kets, of whom the Government purchased them 
for five tliousand dollars. They were taken 
down the Desmoine to Keokuk where their un- 
cle, Reason B. Hall, had rej5aired to receive 
them. They were in captivity only fifteen days 
and were, upon the whole, treated with very lit- 
tle rudeness. Their faces were painted upon one 
side black and upon the other side red. and their 
hair, upon one side, was clipped close to their 
heads, while upon the other it was suffered to re- 
main long. One day they were ordered to lay 
themselves down, with their faces to the ground, 
while above them the warriors brandished their 
weapons and debated about killing them, their 
language being partially understood by the 
cajjtives. It is probable that the circumstances 
were very favorable to the acqiusition of the lan- 
guage. One day, on their march, an Indian's 



136 



THE HISTORY OF TEEU, 



pony stumbled on the brow of a steep hill, when 
horse and rider went tumbling, one over the oth- 
er, to the bottom. The younger Miss Hall has 
since declared that, notwithstanding all the hor- 
rors of her situation, she could not help indulging 
in a ringing shout of laughter. This, so far tVom 
prejudicing her with her captors, gained her their 
favor. Subsequently, a young brave became en- 
amoured with her and, as a consequence, two 
thousand dollars ransom were insisted upon for 
her, while only one thousand dollars were de- 
manded for her sister. While on their march, 
they were allowed only one hours' intercourse 
with each other during the day, and a squaw took 
her place between them as they slept at night.— 
One of them was afterwards married to wtlliam 
Horn and now resides in Missouri, and the other 
was married to William Mnnson and resides on 
Indian Ceeek, near the place of the massacre.— 
This account has been frequently given to the 
writer by different members of the family, and 
lately by Mrs. Scott, an aunt of the ladies, who 
at present lives in the town. 

During the years 1837 and 1838, large forces 
of Irish laborers were employed upon the canal. 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 137 

Some time in tlie winter of these years, one of 
their characteristic fends broke ont betAveen the 
Corkonians or Mnnster men and '' Far Downs " 
or Lienster men at the Sagg, on the n^^per portion 
of the work. This gradually spread itself down- 
w^ards, nntil in May, a united effort was made on 
the part of the Corkonians, w^ho were the strong- 
er party, to drive the " bloody Far Downs" from 
all jobs. A skirmish took place near Marseilles 
where the latter were worsted. The triumphant 
party, excited by victory and bad whisky, defy- 
ing the civil authorities, destroying property, and 
abusing and maltreating every luckless county 
Longfort man who came in their way, continued 
dowm the line below Ottawa, to tlie job of Ed- 
ward Sweeney, who was a Corkonian. Here 
they were reinforced by his entire force — about 
two hundred men — and marched, under his lead- 
ership, to the extreme western end of the line, at 
Peru, wlence tliey countermarched, having 
swei^t the line from end to end, of all obnoxious 
fellow laborers, and destroyed many of their 
shanties. The Sheriff, Alson Woodruff, sum- 
moned a posse to quell the disturbance. "Word 
was sent to the Deputy at Peru, Zimri Lewis, 



138 THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

late ill the afternoon, to raise a party and form a 
junction with another from OttaAva on the next 
day. Lewis gathered what forces and arms could 
be raised in the town and neighborhood during 
the night, and was ready to march early in the 
morning. The rioters, some 'Q.ye hundred 
strong, bivouaced near the " Carey Patch, or 
" Split Rock'' just above the Pecumsogin. In 
the morning they moved up the line, renewing 
the excessess of the previous day. All were 
armed with guns, knifes, scythes, picks, and 
whatever other weapons could be siezed. Lewis' 
forces were joined at La Salle, which then was a 
mere cluster of laborers shanties, by a reinforce- 
ment of Americans and "Far Downs" under 
the leadership of that veteran contractor, Wil- 
liam Byrne, Esq., who was himself a Lienster 
man, and whose employees were driven from 
their work. On the way, the Irish portion ' of 
the forces were with difficulty restrained from de- 
stroying the property and insulting the families 
of their enemies who were in the mob ahead. — 
Upon the ridge of table land, near Buffalo Rock, 
Woodruff, with his posse, met the tumultous rab- 
ble. The former, tolerably well armed, were 



THE HISTORY OF VEKt . 130 

drawn up to prevent their further advance. — 
Woodruff ordered them to lay down their arms 
and submit to the civil authority, warrants having 
been issued for the arrest of the leaders. Tliis 
order was answered by a charge from the mob 
which immediately produced a retreat of the 
posse. The forces of Lewis and Byrne were at 
first j^laced under the command of Capt. Ward 
B. Burnett, the present Surveyor General of 
Kansas, but who soon relinquished the command 
to Lewis. They moved on rapidly to the place 
where the ]3arty w^as held, a short distance from 
which they overtook the enemy. Lewis repeat- 
ed the demand before made by his superior, and 
was answered by defiance and their hostile demon- 
strations, upon which a well directed volley was 
poured into them, which was immediately follow- 
ed by a cavalry charge of such of the forces as 
were mounted. The mob dispersed in every di- 
rection. Some threw themselves into the river 
whither they were pursued, and several were shot 
in the water. A large number were arrested and 
marched to Ottawa. Seven were killed, as known 
at the time, and three others were afterwards 
found in the grass and buried. Of the posse, 



140 THE HISTORY OF PEEU. 

now were killed, but Cornelius Lamb, a black- 
smith, and John Bracken, a laborer, were severe- 
ly wounded. This account of the matter can be 
substantiated by the testimony of many yet living 
in the vicinity who participated in the affray, and 
particularly that by Lewis and Byrne, to whom 
the writer contidently appeals for the general 
truth of the statement. 

On arriving at Ottawa, the prisoners were 
placed under guard, while their followers and as- 
sociates hung in groups about the outskirts of the 
town. Under the Constitution and laws at that 
time, every Irishman, though he might not have 
been but six months from the bogs, was a voter. 
Here, then, was a rich field opened for the dema- 
gogues, and the reader may be sure they did not 
neglect it. Here was democratic raw material 
which could not be permitted to run to waste. — 
S3^mpathizers were 

" Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 
In Vallambrosa " 

Gen. Fry and other aspiring gentlemen commen- 
ced harrangues, but were speedily cut short by 
the " boys " who insisted that this was not the 
entertainment to which thev were invited. 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 14:1 

The number of Irish, living along the lines of 
the canal and rail road, for many years, far out- 
numbered all other residents ; but this was the 
only demonstration against the quiet of the com- 
munity which, by concerted action, has taken 
place from that time to the present, if the riots on 
the Central Eail Road work, on the south bank 
of the river, be excepted. The excess and vio- 
lence, in either case, must not be attributed to the 
Irish residents, as a class. To the conservative 
influence of the more intelligent portion, rather 
than to any exhibition of physical power, is the 
community indebted for the general good order 
which has prevailed. The learned professions, 
merchants, formers and mechanics are largely 
composed of their class ; and many, who came 
here as poor laborers, are now wealthy men, ap- 
preciating, in a degree equal to that of other citi- 
zens, the blessings of a government of laws. The 
writer is fully satisfied, by close observation, that 
the influence of the Catholic clergy has ever been 
on the side of order and submission to the laws. 

Of the riots on the Central Rail Road the fol- 
lowing account is presented. 

In December, 1853, a force of about four hun- 



14:2 THB HISTORY OF PERU. 

dred and tifty men was employed on tlie embank- 
ment and excavations on tlie south end of the 
Central Kail Koad bridge at La Salle. A misun- 
derstanding existed between the contractor, Al- 
bert Story, and the men about wages. The latter 
had been employed at one dollar and a quarter 
per day, but the contractor, being unwilling any 
longer to pay more than one dollar per day, so in- 
formed the men and appointed a day — the 15th — 
when he would pay such as chose to quit work. 
The men, on their part, alledged that they had 
been allured from the East by handbills circula- 
ted by Storv and his associates, announcino^ that 
one dollar and a quarter per day would be paid 
on the job ; and that after they had expended all 
their means to reach the work, the promise was 
violated, and they were thrown out of employ- 
ment, except at reduced wages, with families to 
pro'S'ide for, at the commencement of winter. 

On the day aj)pointed the clerk commenced 
paying. Soon an error was found in the accounts 
which was announced to the men, and the busi- 
ness of paying was suspended. This incensed 
the men, who rushed into the office and declared 
they would help themselves to their pay. One of 



THE HISTORY OF PERL'. 14:3 

them strnck^Story in the face. During the Bcuf- 
ille, Col. Maynarcl,'a Superintendent of the work 
anda resident of Chicago/left by the^back ^way 
to iind and take care of Mrs. Story and her chil- 
dren, r While he was^ ai-one the assailants were 
forced from the room and tlie door refastened, 
when the crowd commenced with axes, picks and 
shovels to break down the door. One succeeded 
in entering, wlien Story, who was armed, asked 
his clerks whether it was bestj to [shoot. They 
said, " no, we had better be quiet. " Mr. Story, 
not knowing that Maynard had gone to take care 
of his wife and ^children, went by the back way 
to the house. Findiug his wife gone, he started 
for the stable for a horse on which to leave the 
place. The men, seeing him, rushed towards the 
stable, shouting "kill him! kill him! kill him !" 
and with picks, shovels and stones brutally and 
almost instantly murdered him, one man striking 
him with a stone on the head after he was dead. 
It has been asserted that Story did lire upon the 
crowd, wounding one man, but this did not clear- 
ly appear on the subsequent trials. 

The news of the^murder soonreached La Salle, 
and a telegraphic dispatch was sent to Ottawa for 



'I 

14:4: THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

Sheriff Thorn, who arrived with a military force 
about 7 o'clock in the evening. These, ^\dth May- 
or Campbell, of La Salle, and about one hundred 
citizens, started for the scene of the murder. — 
On arriving at the spot a number of individuals 
were discovered, scattered over the hills, some of 
whom were armed, though only a few assumed a 
threatening attitude. Being fired upon they stop- 
ped, and one returned the fire, and received, in 
return, two balls in his arm, and was then ares- 
ted. Tlie Sheriff then visited the different shan- 
ties and arrested all, or nearly all, the men he 
could find, amounting to sixty or seventy, of 
which some thirty or forty vrere recognized as 
participators in the row, though none were of the 
supposed ringleaders, but these were subsequent- 
ly arrested. The Sheriff" left a portion of his 
force as a permanent guard ; and the work being 
prosecuted by other parties, the vicinity, through 
out the winter, bore resemblance to a regular 
military encampment. 

Twelve were indicted as ringleaders in the af- 
fray, four of whom, Kren Brennan, James Terry, 
Michael Terry and Martin Ryan took a change 
of venue to Kane county, where they were con- 



TBB HISTORY OF PERU. 1^5 

Yicted of murder, wlien a new trial was granted 
wliich resulted in a second conviction. By the 
clemency of Gov. Matteson their punishment was 
commuted to imprisonment in the penitentiary 
for life ; and among the last of his official acts, a 
full pardon was granted. The executive interfer- 
ence caused great dissatisfaction, and upon the 
occasion of the Governor visiting La Salle, he was 
burnt in effigy. Six were con\dcted of man- 
slaughter and sentenced to the penitentiary for 
one year and served out the term. The other 
two were not found. 

On the bluff, near the old fort, and afterwards 
at Manville Hollow, for many years, there lived 
an individual whose peculiarities were so strongly 
marked as to demand a notice in this work. — 
His name was John Myers, but more familiarly 
known, among the early settlers, as the " stalHon 
painter. " He was a fair specimen of the frontier 
man— a type of wliich is attempted to be de- 
scribed in this chapter. In fact, he served as a 
model for that descriptri£>n. But justice was not 
done to his moral qualities. His rough garb and 
uncouth manners concealed a noble and true 
heart. He was bravo, impulsive and generous, 



146 THB HISTORY OF PERtT. 

and scorned and loathed subterfuge, evasion, 
and ciiicanerv as only a noble and true heart can. 
He liked whisky, as all frontier men do, but he 
seldom lost his bodily or mental equilibrium. — 
He was never in a condition when all his native 
coolness and resources would not have been at 
command in an instant, had he been assailed by 
any of his old familiar foes, whether man or 
beast. He was never quarrelsome, even in his 
cups, but the wronged or weaker party in 
any conflict, was sure to find in him a champion 
as chivalrous as ever raised a shield or poised a 
lance. His exhilaration was generally manifest- 
ed in yells, such as no human throat ever uttered 
before. The most ambitious steam whistle might 
have been envious of his screams. These he 
called his blessings. He sometimes indulged in 
Bongs. Such unearthly notes were never heard 
out of Pandemonium. 

He would have made the fortune of Spalding 
& Rogers by singing an accompaniment to the 
calliope. Many of the present citizens of Peru 
will recollect his vocal performances as he pm*- 
suedhis way homewards across the botto.n above 
the town. On the occasion of the first opening 



THE HISTOKT OF I'ERU. 



147 



of ca court at Ottawa, he went up to witness that 
novel performance. Having imbibed a tew 
draughts ol whisky, and being rather unfamiliar 
with the etiquette and decorum of courts, he in- 
dulged in exercises not very gratifying to judicial 
dignity or favorable to the progress of business. — 
Being frequently reprimanded he became some- 
what incensed, whereupon he gave vent to his in- 
dignation in one of the most remarkable efforts 
of the lungs that even electrified a court of Jus- 
tice. Judges, lawyers and spectators recoiled 
in dismay ,^ and it is beheved that the pins and 
tenons which confined the roof were seriously 
strained. 

When first known to the wi'iter, he was nearly 
eighty years of age, yet his step was firm and 
elastic, his eye bright and lustrous, in the corner 
of which there lurked an expression of humor and 
fun, his mind clear and vigorous, and his voice — 
well, we won't say anything more about that. Born 
upon the outskirts of civilization in Georgia, he 
had wandered along the streams and valleys of 
Tennessee, Kentucky and So'ithern Illinois, rest- 
ing from time to time, until advancing settlements 
crowded him still further into the wilderness.— 



14:8 THS HISTORY OF PEEtT. 

He was entirely unlettered, though he man- 
aged to sign his name, and, as is reported, some- 
times to his disadvantage. JSTotwithstanding this 
he noticed all the fasts and holy days of the Epis- 
copal Church, a circumstance which indicated his 
southern origin. His usual dress was a buckskin 
hunting shirt, breeches and moccasins. In this 
costume he appeared, by special in\T[tation, at tlie 
first ball given in Peru. This was largely com- 
posed of ladies and gentlemen, fresh from the 
saloons and drawing rooms of the eastern cities. 
As may be supposed, the etiquette and toilets of 
the assembly produced no little astonishment in 
the mind of the roui>h old pioneer. The ladies 
eagerly sought his hand in the dance, but shrunk 
back in agony from its vice-like grasp. 

Being once more cramped and annoyed by the 
influx of strangers he left this part of the country 
in 1839 or 18^0, and took up his residence in 
Southern Missouri, near the Arkansas line. Years 
and infirmities soon pressed upon him, when he 
returned to the banks of the Illinois to die. He 
was buried in the burying ground at Cedar point. 
The writer has refrained from a notice of his most 
distinguished exploits, as he finds it prepared to 



THE HISTORY OF PEKU. 



149 



his hand, in a much better manner than he conld 
hope to accomplish, in the September nnmber of 
Putnam's Magazijie. He would say that, in the 
main, It corresponds with the accounts he has re- 
ceived from the mouth of Mr. Myers himself, and 
from those who knew him at the time of the 

events related. 

A party of eight or ten Indians, accompanied 
by Myers, had been out two or three days on a 
hunting excursion, and were returning, laden with 
the spoils of the chase, consisting of various kiuds 
of wild fowls, squirrels, raccoons, and bnftalo 
skins. They had used np all their ammunition 
except a single charge, which was reserved in the 
rifle of the chief for any emergency or choice 
game which might present itself on the vray home. 
A river lay in the way, which could be crossed 
only at one point, without subjecting them to an 
extra journey of some ten miles round. When 
they arrived at this point, they suddenly came to 
a huge panther, which had taken possession of 
the pass, and like a skilful general, confldent of 
his strong position, seemed determined to hold it. 
The party retreated a little and stood at bay for 
a while, and con>iilted what should be done. 
Various methods vrere attempted to decoy or 
frighten the creature from his position, but in 
vaui. He growled defiance whenever they came 
in sight, as mnch as to say, " If yon want this 



150 THE HISTORY OF PERC 

Stronghold come and take it." The animal ap- 
peared to he very powerful and fierce. The 
tremhling Indians hardly dared to come in sight 
ef him, and all the reconnoitering had to be done 
by JMyei'S. The majority were for I'etreating as 
fast as possible, and taking the long journey ten 
miles round for home, but Myers resolutely re- 
sisted. He urged the chief whose rilie was load- 
ed, to march up to the panther, take good aim 
and shoot him down ; promising that the rest of 
the party would back him up closely with their 
knives and tomahawks, in case ef a mis-fire. 
But the chief refused ; he knew too well the 
nature and power of the animal. The crea- 
ture, he contended, was exceedingly hard to 
kill. Xot one shot in twenty, hoAvever well aim- 
ed, would dispatch him; and if one shot failed, it 
was a sure death to the shooter, for the infuriated 
animal would spring upon him in an instant, and 
tear him to pieces. For similar reasons every 
Indian in the party declined to hazard a battle 
with the enemy in any shape. 

At last Myers, in a burst of anger and impa- 
tience, called them alia set of cowards, and 
snatching the loaded rifle from the hands of the 
chief, to the amazement of the whole party, 
marched deliberately towards the panther. The 
Indians kept at a cautious distance to watch the 
result of the fearful battle. Myers walked stead- 
ily up to within about two rods of the panther. 



THB HISTORT OF PERD. ^^^ 

keepino- his eye fixed upon him, while the eyes of 
tlicp^wther flashed fire, and his heavy growl be- 
tolened at once the power and firmness ot the 
animal. At ahout two rods distance, Myers lev- 
eled his rifie, took deliberate ann, and fii'ed.— 
Tbe shot inflicted a heavy wound, but not a latai 
ont; and the furious animal, maddened witn the 
pai:i, made but two leaps before he reached his 
Assailant. Myers met him with the but end of 
his lifle, and'staggered him a little with two or 
thret heavy blows, but the rifle broke, and the 
animal aTappled him, apparently with his lull 
power. ^The Indians at once gave Myers up tor 
dead and only thought of making a lively i-etreat 
for tlx^mselves. Fearful was the struggle between 
Myeis and the panther, but the animal had the 
best ot it at first, for they soon came to the 
o-rounch and Myers underneath, sufiermg under 
the ioiiit operation of sharp claws and teeth ap- 
phecl by the most powerful muscles, m tailing, 
however, Myers, whose right hand was at liberty, 
had drawl a long knife. As soon as they came 
to the o;romid,his right arm being tree, he made 
a desperate plunge at the vitals of the animal, and, 
as good luck would have it, reached his heart — 
The loud shrieks of the panther showed that it 
was his death Avound. He quivered con^^oilsively, 
shook his vicvim with a spasmodic leap and 
plun2:e, then loosened his hold, and tell powerless 
by his side. Myers, whose wounds were severe 



152 THB HISTORY OF PERU. 

but not mortal, rose to his feet, bleeding and mnci 
exhausted, but ^ith life and strength to give a 
grand whoop, which conveyed the news of hit 
victory, to his trembling Indian friends. 

They now came up to him with shouting anl 
joy, and so full of admiration that they were a- 
most ready to worship him. They dressed ard 
bound up his wounds, and were Jiow ready to 
pursue their way home without the least impedi- 
ment. Before crossing the river, Myers cut off 
the head of the panther, which he took home vith 
him, and fastened it up by the side of his cabin 
door, where it remained for years, a memoriae of 
a deed that excited the admiration of the Ind.ans 
in all that region. From that time forth ^hey 
gave Myers that name, and always called him 
the Panther. (The vrriter has betore givc^ the 
name by which all the old settlers will "recognize 
him.) 

Tim-e rolled on, and the Panther conrinued to 
occupy his hut in the wilderness, on the banks of 
the Illinois Eiver, a general favorite among the 
savages and exercising a great influence over 
them. At last the tide of white population again 
overtook him, and he found himself once more 
surrounded by white neighbors. Still, however, 
he seemed loth to forsake the nolle IlUnois, on 
whose banks he had been so long a fixture, and 
he held on, forming a sort of connecting line be- 



TUB HISTORY OF PERU. 153 

tween the white settlers and tlie Indians. 

At length hostilities broke out, which resulted 
in the memorable Black Hawk war, that spread 
desolation through that part of the country. — 
Parties of Indians committed the most wanton 
and cruel depredations, often murdering old 
friends and companions, with whom they had 
long held conversation. The white settlers, for 
some distance round, flocked to the cabin of the 
Pantlier for protection. His cabin was trans- 
formed into a sort of garrison, and was filled with 
more than an hundred men, women and children, 
who rested almost their only hope of safety on the 
prowess of the Panther, and his influence over 
the savages. 

At this time a part}^ of about nine hundred of 
the Iroquois were on the banks of the Illinois, 
about a mile from the garrison of Myers, and 
nearly opposite the present town of La Salle. — 
One day news was brought to the camp of Myers, 
that his brother-in-law and wife, and their three 
children, had been cruelly murdered by some of 
the Indians. The Panther heard the sad news 
in silence. The eyes of the people were upon 
him, to see what he would do. Presently they 
beheld him with a deliberate and determined air, 
putting himself in battle array. He girdled on 
his tomahawk and scalping knife, and shouldered 
liis loaded rifle, and, at open mid-day, silently 
nd alone, bent his steps towards the Indian en- 



154 THE HISTORT OF PEEU. 

campraent. With a fearless and firm tread, he 
inarched quietly into the midst of the assembly, 
elevated his rifle at the head of the principal 
Chief present, and shot him dead on the spot. — 
He then deliberately se\ered the head from the 
trunk, and holding it up by the hair before the 
awe-struck multitude, he exclaimed, "You have 
murdered my brother-in-law, his wife and little 
ones ; and now J have murdered your Chief, I am 
now even with you. Bat now mind, every one of 
you that is found here to-morrow morning at sun- 
rise, is a dead Indian !" ^ 

All this was accomplished without the least mo- 
lestation from the Indians. These people are ac- 
customed to regard any remarkable deed of dar- 
ing as the result of some supernatural agency ; 
and doubtless so considered the present incident. 
Believing their Chief had fallen a victim to some 
unseen power, they were stupified with terror, and 
looked on without, a thought of resistance. My- 
ers bore off the head in triumph to his cabin, 
where he was welcomed by anxious friends, almost 
as one returning from the dead. The next morn- 
ing not an Indian was to be found anywhere in 
the vicinity. 

It is probable that the above may be taken 
with some allowance. There is certainly a mis- 
take about the Indians being Iroquois, and about 
their being an hundred people garrisoned at My- 



THR HISTOIir OF PEKU. 155 

ers' cabin, and probably about their being [any 
there at all. Tliere probably were some people 
gathered in the fort, close by. 

The title to that porti on of Peru, called Nina- 
wa, rests upon the following basis. Lyman D. 
Brewster, as mentioned in the first chapter of this 
History, held under the Government of the Uni- 
ted States. At his demise he bequeathed it to 
the American Colonization Societ3^ This body, 
being a mere voluntary association of individuals, 
having no corporate existence, was incapable of 
becoming a devisee of real estate. It followed, 
then, tliat the property reverted to the heirs-at- 
law as of an Intestate. From these Theron D. 
Brewster obtained releases. Some of them, by 
reason of their minority being incompetent to ex- 
ecute conveyances at the time, have, since arri- 
ving at their majority, conveyed .their several in- 
terests. Mr. Brewster conveyed an undivided 
two-tenths in section seventeen, and an undivi- 
ded four-tenths in section twenty to Col. H. L. 
Kinne}^, by whom various undivided interests 
were sold — one to Col. Ward B. Burnett, one to 
Capt. Eichard Philips, of the St. Louis Demo- 
crat, one to Hon. Henry Hubbard, of New 



156 THE HISTORY OF PERU. 

Hampshire, and one to Hon. Daniel Webster, 
of the United States of America, Mr. Brews- 
ter sold another undivided interest to ?Penn & 
Holmes of Montreal, by whom it was conveyed to 
E. D. Whitney, of Philadelphia. Through some, 
or all of these parties, the title to all projDerty in 
Mnawa Additionjis derived. 

Col. Kinney occupied a very conspicuous posi- 
tion in the incipient stages of the existence of 
Peru. He emigrated from Bradford county, Penn., 
in 1838, and commenced making a new farm on 
the west bank of Spring Creek, working assidu- 
ously during the following winter at splitting 
rails. In 1835, in connection with °Capt. Ulys- 
ses Spaulding, he built a store wliere Peru now 
stands and filled it with goods. Upon the letting 
of work on the canal, he became a contractor for 
all that portion below the Little Vermillion, in- 
cluding locks, basin and channel, amounting to 
nearly a million of dollars. He soon embarked 
in other speculations and business, and became 
tlie most influential and noted man in this i^art of 
the State. In 1837 and the early part of 1838, 
everybody's movements appeared to be regulated 
by those of Col. Kinney. He wi3S the central 



THE HISTORY OF PERU. 157 

Suu from whom all lesser orbs borrowed their 
light. Ill 1837, Kinney became disconnected 
from Spaiilding, and was joined by Daniel J. 
Townsend. A portion of the business was then 
conducted in the name of Townsend & Kinney. 
In 1838, their affairs fell into confusion and Kin- 
ney left. It was wonderful how many j)eople, in 
the town and vicinity, were ruined by his failure. 
Many, who had been brought here from Penn- 
sylvania at his expense, and had lived upon his 
bounty wdiile here, were suddenly ruined by the 
treachery and perfidy of their friend, and, as a 
consequence, were entirely unable to meet their 
own -little engagements. 

Col. Kinney, as is well known, was and is a 
man of indominitable energy, and possessed of a 
brain fertile with vast schemes and gigantic en- 
terprises. He is said to have rode once to Chica- 
go, a distance of one hundred miles, without 
leaving his saddle. Gen. Taylor reported him as 
having moved a command of mounted men, in 
the Mexican War, one hundred miles in twenty- 
four hours — a feat, it is believed, without a paral- 
lel. His address and manners were captivating 
ill the extreme, and he possessed a sort of magnetic 



168 TJIE HISTORY OF VERV. 

power to bind all who came witliin the sphere of 
his influence, to his interests and fortunes. His 
hospitality and liberality were circumscribed only 
by the means at his command at the moment, and, 
as a consequence, parasites clung to him with a 
tenacity known only to that interesting class. — 
Two ot his sisters still reside in the town, and 
his venerable father, Simon Kinney, Esq., at Tis- 
kilwa. 

Col. Kinney soon afterwards turned up at Cor- 
pus Christi, Texas. His career thenceforth has 
become a portion of the history of that State, of 
the Mexican War, and of Central America. 

Among the motley crowd who were gathered 
at Peru in 1S38 was a man named A. II. Miller. 
His nsual cognomen was "Old Kentuck. '' lie 
dressed in the full splendor of a iive-year-gone-by 
fashion, wore high top boots of brilliant colors, 
drawn over liis pantaloons, with tassels pendant 
nearly to the scrupulously polished bottoms, and 
ruffle shirts which the drippings of frequent pota- 
tions soon soiled, and was generally superbly 
mounted, the trappings of his liorse being gaudy 
as those of a Field Marshal. He was of Hercu- 
lean frame — over six feet in height — and always 



THE UISTORT OF PERU. 159 

went armed with a brace of revolvers, one on 
each side, their hilts protruding ostentatiously in 
sight, a ponderous Bowie knite down his hack, a 
dagger in his belt, and a pocket pistol in his right 
breeches-pocket which he christened "little Bet- 
sey, " and upon which was inscribed, "hark from 
the tombs " — in short he was a complete moving 
arsenal. Upon the slightest provocation, he would 
assume the most belligerent attitude and diabolical 
frow^n, set his teeth in manacing rigidity, and 
fumble among his tools, which sent forth certain 
ominous little clicks. Many was the eye ihat 
quailed and cheek that blanched before this per- 
sonification of rage and power. • At length some 
of the " boys" bethought themselves of the old 
adage about barking dogs, and concluded to try 
his mettle. The result was that he displayed the 
white feather and turned tails to, as the saying 
is, amid the jeers and taunts of the by-standers. 
From that moment his prestige was gone, and 
ever afterwards he "roared as gently as a sucking 
dove. " Those who had quailed before his wrath 
took ample revenge by bidlying him upon every 
occasion. 

The most nouceabie places in the neighborhood 



160 THB HISTORY OF PERU. 

are Starved Rock, Deer Park and the Siilj)hiir 
Springs. The folio Aving account of the first of 
these is froin Perkin's Annals . 

'Starved Pock, near the foot of the rapids of 
the Illinois, is a perpendicular mass of lime and 
sand stone washed by the current at its base and 
elevated one hundred and fifty feet. The diam- 
eter of its surface is about one hundred feet, with 
a slojDC extending to the adjoining bluff from 
which alone it is accessible. 

Tradition says that after the Illinois Indians 
had killed Pontiac, the great Indian Chief of the 
northern Indians made war npon them. A band 
of the Illinois, in attempting to escape, took shel- 
ter on this rock, which they soon made inaccessa- 
ble to their enemies, and where they were closely 
besieged. They had secured provisions, but their 
only resource for water was by letting down ves- 
sels with bark ropes to the river. The wily be- 
siegers contrived to come in canoes under the rock 
and cut off their buckets, by which means the 
unfortunate Illinois were starved to death. Many 
years after, their bones were whitening on this 
summit. 

Deer Park is a gorge or ravine, woi'n by the 
action of water through the sandstone superstruc- 
ture, about thirty or forty feet in width, seventy 
or eighty in depth, and about a quarter of ft mile 



TUE niSTOEY OF TTAlV. 161 

in longtli. It is entered on a level witli tlie bot- 
tom of the Big Yermillion, about four miles from 
Peru, and can be explored with carriages its entire 
lengih. The upper end is enlarged into an a:n- 
phitheatre, about one hmidred feet in diametc r 
and over arched with projecting sand stone clilTs. 
in the center of this enlargement bubbles a foun- 
lahi of cool and refreshing water, v/lience trickles 
a crystal rill down the entire length of the gorge. 
During the sultry days of summer it is a deliglit- 
ful place of resort, and, to use a popular term, 
is extensively " improved. " Its name is suppo- 
eed to be derived from the practice of the Indians, 
in driving herds of deer into its m.outh, when, 
having no aperture of escape, they became an ea- 
sy prey. 

The Sulphur Springs are several streams of 
water, issuing from the crevises of the sand stone 
rock, on an elevated plateau, rising from the riv- 
er bottom, not far from midv^ay between Ottawa 
and Peru. ^N'ear them is a fine, commodious Ho- 
tel, for the accomodation of visitors. The vv^aters 
are highlj^ charged with sulphur and olbcr miner- 
al, arc quite offensive to the taste of the novice, 
and are sail to possess valuable curative proper- 



^^y THE mSTOtcr OV PKRU. 



4 



tie^. I'or a more particubr analysis of thc^AO wa-. 
tcr^^, tlie reader is referred to tlie geutlertva.n yet- 
living in onr midst, wlio enjoyed tlie a<1 vantage oil 
li^tenincrtoDoetor ITarrif^ons leanuMl disquisi-. 
tmn, ar^ wlio Lac^ doubtless treasured nuich ol; 
t.lio lore dragged to light on the memorahlo occa- 
sion referred to In the preceding page;s. 



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